St. Irenaeus Ministries: Recent Episodes
David Higbee
Coming to you from the St. Irenaeus Center in Rochester, NY, these lessons give insightful, meaningful, and practical teaching on Scripture from an orthodox Catholic perspective.
Handouts for our Bible studies will now be made available on our website. The handout for this study can be dowloaded here.
Handouts for our Bible studies will now be made available on our website. The handout for this study can be dowloaded here.
Handouts for our Bible studies will now be made available on our website. The handout for this study can be dowloaded here.
Paul and Silas arrested and almost beheaded. The conversion of the jailer and his family.
Paul's credentials as an Apostle. The source of his teaching. Division among the Apostles.
The question of the Gentile Christians. The Judaizers. Paul's credentials as a Pharisee.
Saul confronts a false prophet. Teaching with authority. Parallels with the character of Bar-Jesus.
Saul and Barnabas are given a mission to the Gentiles. Their blessing by the rest of the Church.
Different schools of thought on ritual uncleanness. The Book of Jubilees. Peter's vision as it pertains to Gentile believers.
Philip baptizes a eunuch traveling from Ethiopia. The continued expansion of the Gospel.
Persecution of the Church begins in earnest. Saul's role. His later reflections. Origins of the Samaritans.
The Apostles arrested for the first time. The stone rejected by the builders. Prophecies concerning the destruction of the Temple.
Pentecost as a reversal of the Tower of Babel. The prophecy of Malachi. Christ and the moneychangers.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel proclaimed publicly for the first time. Pentecost in the Old and New Testaments.
Authorship of Acts. Instructions to the Apostles before the Ascension. Knowledge of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
A reflection on the Book of Job, delivered at the 2018 Chesterton Conference in Rochester, New York.
A reflection on the Book of Job, delivered at the 2018 Chesterton Conference in Rochester, New York.
Another chance for the people. God's answer and the final judgment. The dwelling place of the Lord.
Mere profession of belief is insufficient. Restoration promised on the Day of the Lord.
Cultural rootedness in shared stories. The humiliation and glorification of the Servant.
The mission of the Servant. God promises to protect His people, despite their unfaithfulness. A call for the people to return.
The identity of the Servant. Jewish understanding. The Servant as a distinct individual.
The might of God compared to the nations of the earth. Patience for the day of the Lord.
The penalty to be paid by Israel. Promises of the Messiah. Trust in God and His promises.
Oracles concerning the fates of Babylon, Egypt, and surrounding territories. Historical fulfillment of these prophecies.
The shift of nations. The last kings of Judah and Israel, and their struggle with Assyria.
The kings of Judah during the life of Isaiah. Continual threat from Assyria. Corruption in the kingdom.
Points concerning received texts. The voices of the biblical authors. The purpose of prophetic revelations.
Chief among the written prophets. How to approach the book. The authenticity of the text.
Factors obscuring the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Modern teaching on miracles and their connection with the Sacraments. Dependence on the Holy Spirit at each moment.
Insights of the Church Fathers: John the Evangelist, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Tertullian. Early creeds.
Development of Trinitarian theology. Relations between the divine Persons. The nature of doctrinal evolution.
Miracles of the Spirit at key points in the history of the Church. The gift of tongues.
The Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. The appointment of deacons. Baptism with the Holy Spirit. The conversion of Paul.
The Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. Pentecost, the arrest of Peter and John, Ananias and Saphira.
Life according to the Spirit or the Flesh. The Spirit makes the Law of Christ operative in us.
A survey of quotations from the New Testament about the Holy Spirit. The Living Water discourse. The promise of the Paraclete.
The role of the Holy Spirit in daily life. Devotion to the Law. Blasphemy against the Spirit.
Baal worship returns in the North. Israel delivered from destruction in war with Syria.
Missteps and failures of Joash. His crime against the high priest. Joash assassinated by his servants.
Athaliah slain by the palace guards. Joash crowned king. Renewal of the covenant between God, the king, and the people.
Jehu exterminates the priests of Baal and destroys his temple. The dangers of syncretism. The patience of God.
The coming overthrow of the house of Ahab. Elisha sends an emissary to anoint Jehu king.
The king of Israel meets the Shunammite woman. Hazael becomes king in Damascus. A son of Ahab rules Judah.
Samaria invested by the Syrian army. Conditions within the city. Elisha prophesies an end to the famine.
The kings of Syria. Their wars with Israel and Judah. Hasiel anointed king by Elijah at the direction of God.
Naaman afflicted with leprosy. His encounter with Elisha. Fate of Elisha's servant Gehazi.
The wealthy woman of Shunnam. Her son and his miraculous restoration. Death in the pot.
The family of Obadiah. Miracle of the oil pot. God provides for those who trust in Him.
History of the kingdom of Israel. Revolt of the northern tribes. Appearance of Elijah at a moment of crisis.
Elijah and Elisha as prophets with the same mission. Unique stature of Elijah among the prophets. Elisha as his chief heir.
Elisha recognized as the successor of Elijah. His first miracles. The shared ministry of Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah taken up into heaven by a whirlwind. Comparison with similar figures such as Enoch and Mary.
Elijah commanded to prophesy the death of Ahaziah. Fate of the soldiers sent to arrest him.
God's concern for the rebels and Gentiles. Jezebel's threat. Elijah's flight to the desert.
Laws concerning inheritance by marriage. Continual rebellion of the people. The kindness of God.
Religion and practices of the Canaanites. The boundaries of the Promised Land. Cities of refuge.
A recap of the Midianite extermination, and the preparations for battling into the Promised Land.
A description of Moses' final required act from God. The process and reasoning surrounding the extermination of the midianites.
The daily, weekly, monthly, and holy-day sacrifices. Each feast has a covenantal and agricultural meaning, as well as a New Testament fulfillment.
A discusiion on inheritance and what it took to keep the family line alive in ancient times. As well as the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua.
A description of the second census and how it impacted all of the tribes (military participation, land allotment, etc).
Further efforts by Balaam. The faith of Phinehas. Danger of false prophets and teachers.
The final oracle of Balaam. First prophecy of a Hebrew King. Fates of the surrounding nations.
A discussion on Numbers Chapter 22 which includes a detailed account of Balaam the ancient prophet/sorcerer/shaman.
A discussion on Numbers Chapter 21 which includes territorial disputes, an introduction to Balaam, and fiery serpents and their connection to Christ.
Unfaithfulness of Moses at Meribah. Negotiations with Edom. Succession of Eleazar. God's unchanging standards.
A discussion/explanation of priestly vestments and their connection to Christ. As well as the dramatic narrative of Moses Aaron and Korah.
The mission of the spies. Revolt at Kadesh Barnea. Banishment of the Hebrews to the wilderness.
Celebrating Passover in the desert. God leads the nation. Demands of holiness in the modern Church.
A discussion on marriage, Nazirites, blessings, and a continuation of the theme of redemption.
A discussion on the laws found in the book of Numbers. The true meaning behind the sign of peace. A continuation of the theme of redemption.
Census of the adult Levites. The role of priests and rabbis. Redemption as the theme of Numbers.
A discussion on the population of Israel, the Levites, and the ancient logistics of moving two million people.
This is an introduction into the book of Numbers. The discussion revolves around the importance of the book, and the many fascinating treasures it contains.
Teaching on vows in Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, and the Gospels. Conclusion to the book of Leviticus. God's commands open the way of life to us.
Laws concerning the voluntary dedication of persons, animals, houses, and land to God. The means of redeeming a dedicated thing.
A continuation of the discussion of Leviticus Chapter 26:
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Blessings from keeping God's law.
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Penalties/Curses as consequences of disobedience (the discipline of a loving God).
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Assurance and restoration.
A discussion of Leviticus Chapter 26:
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Blessings from keeping God's law.
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Penalties/Curses as consequences of disobedience (the discipline of a loving God).
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Assurance and restoration.
Laws concerning the maintenance of the altar. Jesus's citation of David consuming the priests' bread. Limitations on vengeance.
Keeping the Sabbath and holy days. Israelite feasts and their connection to the New Testament.
This part focuses primarily on the expectations and conduct of the priesthood in the time of Leviticus. Acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices to God.
Proper behavior towards strangers and other disadvantaged persons. Penalties for breaking the law. The universal call to holiness.
Holiness as separation. Strictures against mistreating slaves and various forms of idolatry.
The remaining commandments are discussed. Proper treatment of one's neighbor is described in detail. An understanding of the treatment of loans, wages, and retribution derived from the commandments.
The Ten Commandments are discussed. The obligations of the Jews to God is explained in detail.
A discussion of Leviticus chapter 18 (and Acts 15) focusing on laws regarding sexual immorality, idolatry, gentiles, and homosexuality.
Condemnation of the offering of blood to satyrs. Strictures regarding unclean meat and the slaughtering of animals far from the tabernacle.
The prescriptions for properly slaughtering a sacrificial animal. Avoidance of creeping idolatry.
A detailed run-through of: clean and unclean animals, skin diseases, bodily discharges, purity in childbirth, and the day of atonement.
Delving into laws that are foreign to our modern way of thinking, and understanding ritual impurity, moral impurity, profanity, and the conditions for coming into God's holy realm.
Priests represent the people before God: Christ had to be incarnated in order to represent us. The danger of presuming upon God's grace.
The priestly office as exercised by patriarchs in the book of Genesis. The transgressions of the sons of Aaron.
The nature of the priesthood as intermediaries between sinful humanity and a perfect God.
Christ's sacrifice on the cross parallels and perfects the Levitical offerings. Exploration of these connections in the letter to the Hebrews.
Sacrifices depend on following the prescribed rites with the proper interior disposition. A survey of Biblical examples.
The Levitical sacrifices do not operate through their own inherent value but because they are commanded by God.
We must not take God's mercy for granted. He is generous with His mercy, but He is still a Holy and all-powerful God, not a mere friend.
Celebratory meals of fellowship are done with others and with God, foreshadowing the Eucharistic sacrifice. However, they require one to be ritually clean and unstained by sin, similar to how the Eucharist requires us to be in a state of grace. Yet God is eager for us to seek that forgiveness.
In this episode we begin discussing the basic structure of burnt offerings and cereal offerings.
Sacrifice commonly has a connotation as a loss to Westerners, but in Leviticus it can be done for all the reasons of prayer: for thanksgiving, for mourning, for please for forgiveness or help. Sacrifice makes prayer concrete.
By the way, last week I accidentally reposted the same content as a new episode. I'm sorry for the mistake!
Just like how Jesus was divinity clothed in flesh, so also is Leviticus the love of God clothed in the letter of the law.
The book is divided into parts: It describes a mechanism God gives to heal our brokenness through sacrifice. It describes a priesthood provided to the people as a buffer between humanity and God's awesome holiness. Finally it oultines a standard for how we can know what is true or false, helpful or hurtful even today.
Metaphors of holiness are discussed, especialy the relationship between whole and holiness. God is calling us back to holiness and wholeness. The main theme of Leviticus is that God is holy: that is, separated from evil and all defect. His holiness is not mere supreme ethics but supreme divinity. Finally there are some notes on skeptical critical scholars who suggest Leviticus was written long after Moses.
Leviticus is a difficult book. It is seemingly a tedious book of regulations. However, each rule is an example of how we are called to holiness. It is concrete guidance from God that is still relevant to Christians today.
Ezekiel illustrates a life-giving river flowing from the Temple. Overall This description of a Temple encourages us to read more from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy to understand Jewish worship to appreciate the description of the Temple and the Mass. This is the last episode of the Ezekiel study, thank you for listening.
God will place the Levites who presided over idolatry in the lesser roles of his temple, whereas the loyal sons of Zadok will minister directly to God. There will be strict separation between what is holy and what is common.
God came from the East, the earth shone with His glory. He notes how the Israelites have disrespected the temple in multiple ways, and asserts that things will change from now on.
The Temple as described is a specifically Hebrew temple, where access to God is limited and well protected. The imagery and measurements represent categories of holiness, not a secret code for conspiracies.
Ezekiel receives the vision of the new Temple a quarter century into exile. It mirrors the vision of God departing from the Temple earlier in the book.
Ezekiel's final chapters describe a vision of a Temple of God in great detail. It does not match Solomon's Temple (not destroyed), the second Temple, or Herod's renovation of the second Temple. Is this description of a physical temple to be realized, or something symbolic? The existence of a Temple is a primary concern for Jews both historical and contemporary.
We believe that this prophecy of Gog will be fulfilled, but how and when it will happen is a subject of much debate. Ultimately however it will be God's might that achieves Gog's defeat rather than our efforts.
Ezekiel, Joel, and Revelation all tell of an invading army from the north who will attack the Israelites and yet be destroyed by a cataclysm.
Ezekiel has a vision of a battle at the end times, where a horde of barbarian horsemen from many faraway nations seek to invade Israel. While striking one must be careful about speculating about specific political events through this vision.
God shows Ezekiel a vision of a valley of dry bones that symbolize Israel. He promises to raise up these bones and breathe new life into them, resurrecting the nation of Israel and foreshadowing the promise of everlasting life in Christianity.
The Lord promises to clean the Israelites from their idol worship and to return them to a culture of carefully obeying his Law. This is not a new covenant, but a new spirit of faithfulness to the original covenant. Likewise Christians have had their new covenant through Christ, but to realize the promises we must allow God to work through us to carefully carry out His work.
It sometimes appears that God's promises are not fulfilled. But it is not because God is not faithful, but oftentimes because the people to whom he makes his promises are not faithful themselves and must be punished. However ultimately God will be more faithful than his people for the sake of his name.
The Lord turns to judge Edom, the nation from the line of Esau. Edomites have held a perpetual hatred against the Israelites, and their opportunistic attack against Israel enraged the Lord. Even though the Lord was punishing Israel, He ultimately promised this land to them, and it was not Edom's to take, nor Edom's right to indulge their violence and hate.
The Lord promises that both He and the Son of David will be a Shepherd for His people, prophesying the future Messiah.
Ezekiel prophecies against the "Shepherds:" politicians, religious leaders, and teachers who do not care for their flock spiritually or physically and instead only enjoy the privileges of leadership. Christianity has many modern examples among the clergy today.
Jerusalem has fallen, but the few survivors have not learned to change their ways. Just because they survived this onslaught does not mean they are free from God's wrath if they continue to sin.
God takes no pleasure in killing the wicked, but in the wicked turning back from their evil ways. It's not that we are trying to achieve a net positive when comparing sin and virtue, but whether we are turned toward Him or away from Him at the end.
The Lord offers hope beyond the punishment. He sets Ezekiel as a watchman, responsible for warning people if their sins will lead them to destruction. Whether or not they repent, if Ezekiel knows that they are in danger of destruction, and does not warn them, he is responsible. So are we also set as watchmen.
Egypt was one of the most prosperous ancient civilizations. The Lord plans on punishing Egypt for their duplicity in their military agreements with Israel. Babylon will come through and plunder Egypt, leaving it to forever be a shadow of its former glory.
The Lord compares the King of Tyre to Lucifer. The King's hubris will lead him to challenge Babylon and lose. The Lord will judge all nations that coerce or attack innocent countries. He will deliver the innocent from the thorns that attack them, though this may not happen in this lifetime.
Tyre had vast access to many markets: Persia and many Africans. Tyre produced a royal purple dye from shellfish that was very valuable. Their markets had all kinds of exotic goods. Among other things, Tyre is a center for slave trade. The King of Tyre considers himself a god, and will soon find out how incorrect this is.
Tyre will suffer the rather of many nations as part of God's punishment for their perverse pleasure in Israel's demise. This prophecy is controversial, partially because Tyre is able to survive long sieges. However, over the course of history it faces opponent after opponent, eventually succumbing to Alexander the Great.
God intends to punish the Ammonites, the Edomites, and the Phillistines. Some of them are punished merely for an attitude of malicious glee at the punishment of Israel. This should make us think twice about our own attitudes about our enemies.
God reminds the "Prince" of Israel of his country's many sins, and how he will not escape punishment. Ultimately the nation will be shown mercy though, despite its long history of sin. Ezekiel is ordered to perform several signs of Israel's coming punishment, including being ordered not to mourn the death of his wife.
Angry at the elders of Israel demanding prophecy, God reminds them of their continual inclination toward idolatry, even back in Egypt. He chastises them for distorting the Law of Moses to commit evil. For example some Israelites construed their firstborns belonging to God as an excuse to sacrifice and kill them out of convenience. We are warned that any ostensibly Christian activities that turn us away from God are not truly Christian activities.
God tells Israel a series of allegories. He warns Israel of its upcoming punishment for not only breaking His covenant but their political covenant with Babylon. He gains no pleasure from the death of His children and seeks their return to Him.
God reminds Judah that Sodom was synonymous was evil in Israelite culture, but that Judah's actions are worse because they should know better. They are a prosperous nation steeped in Scripture that is turning around and attacking those loyal to God.
God tells Ezekiel to compare Israel to a child disposed of in a wasteland, who God takes in, raises, and marries before she turns around and becomes a harlot. Israel "plays the field" by worshipping other pagan gods and making child sacrifices.
The lord promises to lead false prophets astray for pretending that they speak with His authority. The last part of this episode is some review and discussion of the previous few lectures, tying it into modern life.
I apologize for the echos in this recording.
The Lord tells Ezekiel to prepare the Israelites for exile, that they may confess their sins to the nations. The exiled Israelites will one day come back and rebuild Israel, and the Lord will replace their hearts of stone and restore Israel to a nation loyal to the Lord.
The Lord shows Ezekiel of a vision where He instructs a man in white linen to mark Israelites loyal to God with a crosslike symbol, and then destroy the rest with cleansing fire for their idolatry.
I apologize for the echo in this recording.
God shows Ezekiel a vision of pervasive idol worship among the Israelites, even among the highest echelons of power. Demand for false prophets is high at this time, though Ezekiel has gained notoriety and people are interested to hear what God tells him to say.
I apologize for the echo in this recording.
We discuss how some of the elements of the Ezekiel's visions are found elsewhere in the Bible. We also begin to discuss the vision of God on the throne, resplendent in awesome power.
We discuss the living wheels that make up the chariot and throne of God in Ezekiel's vision.
We discuss the winged creatures in Ezekiel's vision, tying in their potential signficance to other parts of the Bible.
Ezekiel sees of vision of powerful-looking creatures that hold up a chariot for the Lord. The imagery of these creatures is used for artistic effect in later, recognizable works but must be viewed in their context: as symbols of power and majesty.
We are introduced to Ezekiel. We know he was a young Levitical priest and that he was a Jew in the Babylonian exile. We discuss a bit of the historical context.
Welcome to our study on Ezekiel! Ezekiel is a book of apocalyptic literature, where God gives a startling vision that draws back the curtain between Heaven and Earth. It comes at a time when philosophers worldwide are starting to consider universal truths and move beyond purely local concerns. The time of Jewish exile foretold in Ezekiel will eventually lead the Jews to a renewed focus on the Law and the rise of the synagogue. That said, this book must be approached with caution. Read what the book is saying on the surface, and do not jump into wild speculation. Like Revelation, it can be tempting to ascribe unfounded meanings to certain passages. Start with what is obvious and sound, and let the other questions settle themselves in due time.
We must rejoice in Christ, pray and give thanks to God. If we follow the Christ-centered conduct of Paul and the Philippians, we will be following a solid example and one grounded in Scripture.
Thank you for listening to our study on Paul's Letter to the Philippians. Tune in for our next study!
Rejoice always, in the Lord. This is more than general cheer--this is part of our inner spiritual life. Such rejoicing reveals a trust in the Lord that can cut down divisions between Christians because it is God who will take care of the conflict.
Paul wants our joy and suffering and sacrifice not to be experiences in themselves, but products in our growing relationship with Christ. He asks one of the Philippian pastors to resolve a conflict between two prominent women in the community, because such conflicts keep them (and us) from progressing in Christ.
Paul tells the Philippians to race towards Heaven and towards an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what they've achieved in their journey, they should stay focused on pursuing this goal. They should put to death all worldly appetites and desires, for those will drag them away from this final goal.
We are to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his suffering--we commune with Christ in His sufferings. We must actively work to know God better. Being conformed to a death like Christ's. We should be ambitious to suffer as Christ had suffered.
Paul argues that knowing Jesus Christ is more important than any earthly outward show of pious obedience. He argues that if that was the case, he is more devout than any other Jew. However, these accomplishments he counted as losses for the sake of Christ.
We begin the 3rd chapter of Philippians. Paul begins to remind the Philippians about the danger of Judaizers, Christians who want to unnecessarily push the Law of Moses on Gentiles. He points out this is unnecessary because Christian circumcision is in the spirit, not the flesh.
We must transcend our divisions to shine as light in a secularized world. Nonbelievers see when Christians squabble and they comment on it. Paul built an early Church with Jews, Greeks, and Romans, each with forces and ideologies that tried to drive them apart. Compared to the crucifix however, every pettiness is so much less.
Paul discusses how to live and work, day-by-day, depending on God and thereby shining out against the crookedness and perversity of the world. He also mentions his two loyal disciples, Timothy and Epaprhoditus. Epaproditus nearly died from sickness and is coming back to Philippi to assauge concerns from the community about his health. These human worries, if continually brought to Christ in prayer, are fundamentally compatible with the Christian life.
Paul illustrates the humiliations that Christ endured, which contrast with the sins of Adam. These humiliations are exactly how we should imitate Christ.
Paul exhorts the Philippians stand firm with one another and to be of one mind in the strongest rhetorical terms. Unity in Christ is a witness to Christ and the lack of unity is a scandal. Real love (not sentimental love) binds Christians one to another. All of us should have the same disposition, the same love, of the same soul, and the same mind. We are to put to death our own selfishness, and put others in our Christian community first.
Paul has concerns about unity breaking down in Philippians at a spiritual level. They have suffered years of persecution and poverty. Paul comforts them in this, saying it is a sign from God. They have been granted suffering for Him, and the evildoers will be punished.
Paul calls for the Philippians' love to grow and abound in knowledge and in understanding. He discusses suffering, giving joy that his imprisonment has led his preaching the Gospel to have such a wide reach. He argues that persecution is a privilege and a sign of one's devotion to Christ.
Paul is incredibly thankful to God for Philippi, and thankful for God's grace and work through them. This thankfulness buoys him as he serves his prison sentence, and is a model for us as we are called to "rejoice always and in everything give thanks."
Paul introduces himself and Timothy as servants of Christ Jesus, and the significance of this title is discussed. The letter is addressed to the entire community, not just the overseers and deacons. They are all saints, through grace in Jesus Christ. The titles of overseer and deacon also have different connotations in that time than today.
Paul maintains a warm friendship with the church of Philippi. They are poor and persecuted but joyful and generous beyond their means. Paul's letter to them, written from prison, reflects that effusive joy. Some references to Philippi in the other letters are discussed.
Some of Paul and Luke's initial efforts at preaching in Philippi are chronicled. They meet and convert Lydia, a wealthy woman who would later be helpful in their other Macedonian efforts. They are arrested and beaten for their work, yet their are freed by the Lord through an earthquake. They convert their jailer and his family, but are asked to leave by the law in the town.
Paul entered Asia but the Holy Spirit prevented him from evangelizing. He has a vision of a Macedonian man encouraging him to come to Macedonia. Paul makes his way to Phillipi, a major city in Macedonia. Phillipi is a rich port city with access to farmland and gold. It is also the site of the Battle of Philippi, where Octavius Caesar and Marc Antony defeats the Roman Republic. Afterwards it becomes a home for Roman veterans to retire. Philippi also had easy access via the Egnatian Way to many other cities. However it was far outside of Christianity's reach thus far.
Note: A map of Paul's missionary journeys is frequently referred to in this episode and may be useful.
In this lecture we continue discussing some of the background history that leads to Philippians. We discuss the Council of Jerusalem, which decides the responsibilities of Gentiles with regard to Jewish law, and Paul's initial plan for his mission which he intends to take to Asia Minor.
St. Paul has an effusive relationship with the Church of Philippi. Philippi was the beachhead of Christian evangelization in Europe. The stoning of Steven led to the scattering of the Church in Jerusalem and Judea. As a result, the faith spreads out to Gentile populations. Initially Gentile conversions were not a focus, but a side effect of evangelization in Judea. However, Barnabus and Saul are chosen by the Holy Spirit to seek out Gentiles specifically to bring into Church and teach them the Law of the Lord.
God is our creator, and ultimately holds life and death in His hands. It is His right to punish the Canaanites for their centuries of sin by ordering them to be wiped from the face of the earth by the Israelites. However, God is also beyond this earth. Jesus, after death, went down to the realm of the dead to preach to the spirits. Even those punished in this life may have hope in the next. Moses was forbidden from entering the Promised Land due to his sin, but as the Transfiguration shows, he was greatly rewarded by God.
Deuteronomy deserves continued study and meditation even beyond this course. Read it, think about it, pray on it, and teach it to your family. It is an accessible book to the disciple, and not just the scholar. It will reveal plain truths on how we can please God throughout your life.
This brings our study of Deuteronomy to a close. Thank you very much for listening, and stay tuned for the next course! If you profited from this study of this foundational book, please share it with friends and family who would likewise profit!
"You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." This law seems like it is not applicable to those who do not have oxen. However, this particular law can be a teaching moment for God's people. It shows that it is wrong to deprive any working creature of their just reward for labor, whether they are an animal or human. Underpaying a worker out of greed is violating this law.
This episode discusses the form of Law. For example, some laws are meant to set the Jews apart from other peoples, and some laws are written with the hardness of men's hearts in mind. Then there are pieces that call men higher to God himself, to call men to have a believing heart. The realization of some of this Law in the Gospel is discussed.
These next couple of lectures discuss Deuteronomy as a whole. First, the role of the Law in our relationship with God is discussed. Then the Shema Israel and the Ten Commandments, the cornerstone of the Law, is reviewed. God cannot be satisfied by our imperfect adherence to these Laws, but through His love and mercy our hearts will be circumcised to build a higher obedience.
Moses surveys the land of Canaan, and then passes away. The Lord Himself buries Moses, in a place that no-one knows. There is some speculation that Moses was assumed into Heaven as Elijah. No other prophet since has since known God face to face and performed such mighty deeds--except Jesus Christ.
Overall, Deuteronomy is an exhortation not just to know the Law of the Lord, but to follow it. Those who know the Law but do not follow it blaspheme the Lord to others. We must work to follow it with all our hearts, and graciously accept the mercy and grace of God when we fall short.
While this completes the chapter-by-chapter lectures of Deuteronomy, the next few episodes will continue the subject by addressing questions and further thoughts. Then we will move on to the next study.
This episode discusses the specific blessings Moses leaves to each tribe. These are comparable to the blessings Jacob leaves to his sons before his death. Many have implications for military ability or wealth and prosperity.
Through a poem, God brings forward a case against the Hebrew nation for their iniquity. He lays out the love, care, and guidance He provided to the Israelites. When they became prosperous, they forsook Him and served other gods. As a result, the Lord gives favor to Gentiles to provoke jealousy to the Jews. God pledges to turn his wrath toward the Jews for their sin, resulting in complete destruction. In the end, God will prove His sovereignty. Finally, God will make atonement for the sins of His people. After the song, Moses is once again reminded that he will not cross the Jordan as a consequence for his disobeying God in full view of the people. Moses, as a leader and example for his people was, as the book of Hebrews says, is "keeping watch over" the souls of the people they lead. Leaders and teachers will be judged on how they handle this responsibility.
Moses is very old, and will not cross the Jordan; but the Lord will cross the Jordan and crush the Canaanites, with Joshua leading the people. Every seven years, the Law will be taught to the people by the priests. It will also be taught by elders and public officials. The Lord appears to Moses, warning him that the Israelites will rebel against Him, incurring His wrath. He knew this would happen even before making the agreement with the Israelites. This is not a failure of the Law, but just part of a plan that will be fulfilled by Christ. The Lord tells Moses to teach the Hebrews a song as a reminder of the Law after they have forsaken it. If the Hebrews try to argue that the Lord has not held up His end of the bargain, this song is a rebuttal.
The Law of the Lord is not beyond our reach. It is here, and accessible. Therefore, we must decide to study it and follow it. We are given the choice of Life or Death, being For or Against the Lord. The New Testament repeats this message in reference to Christ. We have the freedom to choose either path, and while we live God's mercy beckons us to turn to the path of Life.
Moses expresses concern that despite knowing God's power, the Hebrews still do not have a mind for obedience. In fact this wisdom does not come naturally, but is a gift from God, one that must be sought in faith. At this point in Deuteronomy, the Israelites truly become the People of God. Once again Moses warns against idolatry, which, even as an individual sin, can poison the entire nation. The nature of God is unsearchable, but God has revealed a great amount to His people in the scriptures that we may know Him better and love Him. Moses reiterates the generous mercy the Lord will provide to those who repent and return to Him.
The Lord promises every good thing to the Israelites -- fruitful farms and families, safety and security, financial affluence, and a recognized place in the world as God's own people. However, for this to pass, the Israelites must diligently obey the Word of God in its entirety. However, if the Israelites do not obey the Lord, He promises famine, pestilence, enslavement, and utter destruction. Deuteronomy Chapter 28 explores these blessings and cursings in gruesome detail. Finally this is tied into the New Testament discussion of sin and God's correction of His children.
Moses appears with the elders that will take his place to exhort the people one more time. The people are ordered to write the Law in a stone memorial when they cross the Jordan. They will sacrifice offerings to the Lord and share in a meal with one another to rejoice in the Lord. Each person in Israel has individually committed to serving and loving the Lord. They commit specifically to being cursed if they perform one of 12 violations of God's Law. Many of these violations can be perfomed away from human eyes, but God sees all. Atonement must be made for these sins, and if it is truly earnest than God will forgive.
In addition, your humble editor apologizes for missing an episode last week.
This episode is a short meditation of the laws in the previous lessons, and how we take their message and incorporate these laws into our faith. We need to correctly know and understand these laws, then digest them, pray on them, and let them into our hearts. These laws are supported, expanded upon, and taught by Jesus and the writers of the New Testament. These laws,rightly understood, are how we love God and love our neighbor. Rather than just experiencing our faith through words and feelings, we can put it into action in service of the Lord.
When harvesting crops, forgotten fruits are meant to be left for the poor and needy rather than carefully recovered. The property is the Lord's, and the Israelites are mere stewards of that property.
If a man dies without bearing a son, his brother is meant to marry the widow and bear a son for him. This is not only so that the man's heritage is preserved, but also so that the widow may be cared for by these sons. The younger brother does not profit from this arrangment, but serves his duty to their family and averts selfishness.
Finally, the firstfruits of crops are offered to the Lord and to the poor. All of this is written to remind us to constantly consider the Lord and the poor when we have abundance. Moreover we are called not to follow the minimum requirements, but extend them as FAR as our heart and soul can bear!
Some laws of sexual purity are discussed, strongly punishing adultery and false accusations of adultery. Men cannot use women physically and then forsake them.
Some of the more curious legal codes should be interpreted in light of being God's revelation, created for our benefit. For example, loaning to one's brother at interest is banned. In this time period, loans were not for business investment, but for recovering from financial hardship. Charging interest is taking advantage of one's brother (as forbidden previously).
The law of divorce is discussed. Jesus forbids divorce among Christians, but for their 'hardness of heart' this law exists in the law of Moses. This law of divorce was provided by God in Mosaic Law as a practical consolation for the weakness of man, but in a people set alight by the Holy Spirit as the Christians are, it should be unnecessary. This law sets a lower bound, while a much loftier standard is sought.
"You must love your neighbor as yourself." To the Hebrews this includes people who are not Hebrews. You must help prevent the loss of his animals, garments, or property; or take advantage of his loss. This must be done as a brotherly obligation without payment. This help must not be withheld. This is an obligation of LOVE. The law is bound together with the Lord's will that people love one another.
God reminds us of responsible care of life and to not carelessly let it be wasted.
Finally, several laws, seemingly arbitrarily, prevent mixtures of plowing animals and mingled clothing fibers. These boundaries are set in place to define proper pious witness in the Jewish faith.
The Laws in these chapters describe particular situations, but seek to impart general principles. Laws regarding inheritance are discussed, and while not every permutation is accounted for, the proper procedure can be derived from what is provided. A particular case where a son with a criminal disregard for authority is discussed. While it technically opens the possibility for punishing such a child with death, such a decision is practically impossible to reach. Yet it puts a law on the books that this kind of rebellion is displeasing to the Lord. Finally, a law is laid out to limit the time executed criminals are "hung" on a tree, as this defiles the land. When applied to Christ, this law highlights the gravity of His taking on our sin and hanging on the cross.
These chapters lay out practical law for the Hebrews that are not simply legal codes, but guides to live a moral life obedient to the Lord. Rules for atonement for the spilling of innocent blood are layed out. Women who are captives of war are to be wives, not concubines, sex slaves, or rape victims. This policy is more humane than even more modern attitudes to powerful men taking advantage of disadvantaged women.
War is conducted on the understanding that the Lord, not the Hebrews, will be the cause of victory. Only a small number of loyal soldiers are required. Finally, the religious culture of Deuteronomy and the Gospel is discussed. The culture is different from, and sometimes irreconcilible with, typical modern American sensibilities. God is to be uncompromisingly trusted and obeyed. Yet He loves and desires to have mercy on us, that we may love Him in return. This is not a tolerance for sin, but a reminder of the gravity of his forgiveness.
Deuteronomy foretells of a prophet and mediator between God and the Jewish people. This is seen as foretelling the ministry of Jesus Christ, through whom God reveals His love of mankind. Some guidance is given for how to distinguish real prophets from false ones. Rules carefully delineating manslaughter and murder are laid out. Despite the fact that we do not live in a theocracy, we should have a mind to purge evil from our midst.
When there are accusations of idolatry, it must be ascertained through credible evidence. The punishment is designed to be decisive and JUST. The witnesses are involved in the execution in order to discourage false accusations. A judicial system is carefully created to ensure due process, allowing Levitical priests and higher courts to take care of matters too difficult for local courts. Some cases are taken to the tabernacle, before the Lord, if they are judged too difficult for mortal understanding. Some regulations regarding kings are outlined. Importantly, kings are to be chosen by God and they are not to be above the Law. Priests are ordered not to engage in human sacrifice and divination.
Wise, experienced judges are to be appointed by the people, in every town, and are expected to be righteous. The justice they seek is the justice required by God. The Israelites are forbidden from setting up pillars and other graven images, because God HATES them. God also detests blemished and imperfect offerings (e.g. sick oxen). He requires a perfect sacrifice as Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.
Traditional Jewish feasts are outlined, and their new significance to Christians are discussed. Some guidance on how to read the book of Deuteronomy is provided. It must be read carefully and its precepts dutifully followed. We are encouraged to catechise and be catechised in order to effectively serve the Lord. Just as the Hebrews lived separately from pagan idolatry, so too are we also called to live separately from the evils of the world by following the Law revealed by the Lord.
The Hebrews were called to grieve differently and eat differently as a reminder that they were a people set apart for the Lord. Bacon is not inherently sinful to eat, but it was set aside as something the Lord expected His people not to eat. Christ did not abolish the ritual kosher laws for the Jews, but clarified that they did not apply to Christians. However, the moral laws set down in the Old Testament still very much apply to Christians today. God expects a tithe: He expects His people to return a gift of a portion of everything that the He has given them. The Lord specifies laws meant to care for the poor. Parts of the Lord's tithes were to be shared with widows, and lending laws were such that the poor could not be kept as permanent slaves to debt.
The eating of innocent blood is forbidden. These temple practices are emphasized for correct worship of God but also a guidance even in our lives to recognize the sacredness of life designed by God. The Israelites (and we) are warned against apostates who try to lead us away from the Lord and from the Torah, even if they are close family and friends. Hebrew law lays out dire consequences for such people, but only in the context of rigorous judicial review. In our case we do not have a theocratic system, but are still exhorted to reject such temptation.
The Israelites are told to destroy the places of worship of rival religions. This is because their existence is a temptation to idolatry, one to which many Hebrews would eventually give in. There is one God, separate from all other religious influences. Worship of the Lord is done in one central location set aside by Him: a special, sacred place. All sacrifice and offering to the Lord will not be done at local shrines, but at His chosen location. This will help prevent His worship from being diluted by local practices.
The Canaanites will be defeated due to their wickedness. Israel's righteousness or strength will have nothing to do with it, however, as Israel has frequently disobeyed the Lord through their stubbornness. But God is merciful and gracious. This is just as true in the church today as in ancient Israel. If we repent and be receptive to the love of the Lord, He will redeem us with His infinite love and mercy.
In addition I (the editor of these podcasts) greatly apologize for the unannounced hiatus. I will endeavor to make sure there is a smoother release schedule in the coming months.
The Canaanites would be destroyed gradually, as a test of sustained faith. They were not to take the gold and treasure of the Canaanites because it was full of temptations to idolatry. The meaning of the word "abomination" is briefly discussed. The repetition of Moses' exhortations throughout this text are defended--Moses seeks in this final speech to solidify the importance of the lessons of God's care for His people and of His commandments. The Israelites are on the eve of entering a rich and abundant land, from decades of time in the desert. They are warned to remember that it was not their strength, but God's that brought them to this land.
The Hebrews are called to completely destroy their rivals in Canaan--man, woman, child, and artifacts of worship. This is a difficult passage to accept. However, God explicitly wants to protect His people from the temptation of idolatry that would be constant if the Hebrews lived among Canaanite religion (The Hebrews would later fall prey to this very temptation). Despite this seemingly harsh judgement, God offers hope to the innocent and righteous. Furthermore, if Israel keeps God's commandments, he will lavish great reward.
All of our actions are meant to be put into the effort of loving devotion to God--teaching our children constantly and binding His Word in our heart. God is loyal to His people, and He insists that we be loyal to Him.
The remainder of the Ten Commandments are reviewed. While on the surface they are concerned with man's responsibility not to bring harm upon one another (through honoring his parents, not killing, stealing, sowing falsehoods, etc,) they ultimately come back to God. God is our Father, and dishonoring our earthly father is as an affront to Him. God values life, and killing, stealing, and bearing false witness against our neighbor are attacks on that life. The more these commandments are reflected upon, the more they yield applications in our love of God AND our love of neighbor.
In this episode, we begin discussing the Ten Commandments. In particular, we discuss the first three--God's commandment against idols, His commandment against taking His name in vain, and His commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. These commandments are often broken and avoided, even by Christians, but if we do not honor them we do not honor God.
Moses treats the text of Deuteronomy as not just a legal code, but instruction to be preached to Israel in order to be faithful to the Lord. Both the Ten Commandments and the various statutes and decrees are relevant to us today, and wisdom on how to obey God can be gained from studying them. God wants to be with His people, but as long as they exist in mortal flesh a mediator is required for His covenant. Moses was that mediator in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ was in the New.
After the previous generation of Hebrews is punished for Kadesh Barnea, the next generation is guided by God to defeat Sihon and Og on the path to the Jordan river. Moses exhorts his people to be faithful to God and to teach their children and grandchildren to continue to be faithful. He warns against idolatry, because like a husband God is jealous for his love Israel, and firmly opposed to the unfaithfulness that graven images are. God will punish those who turn away from him, but He is merciful and faithful, and will return to those who turn towards him again.
This episode explores Kadesh Barnea, where the Hebrews break their covenant with God and accuse Him of murderous intent as they are about to enter the Promised Land.
The Hebrews, led by Moses, have reached the Jordan river after 40 years of wandering in the desert. After 40 years, the generation who had disobeyed God has died out, leaving their children. Moses seeks to pass on the law of the Lord to the Hebrews before they cross and take the Promised Land, warning them against the mistakes of their fathers and laying out a basic governmental framework.
Deuteronomy is the roadmap through with the Hebrews were called to live their life. It is useful for "teaching, reproof, and correction," and preparation "for every good work," but is not a tool to justify themselves before God. The law, defined in the Old Testament, is not obsoleted in the New Testament but instead fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
The Lord exhorts the Hebrews present at the Jordan to follow His law, unlike the generation of Sinai. The law is more than a dated legal code applicable only to this ancient people. Careful study of this book brings a deep understanding of our faith. Deuteronomy was well studied by Jesus and Paul, and its study is strongly encouraged by the Psalmist.
The dating of the book of Deuteronomy is discussed. Archaeological and Biblical evidence is considered, as well as its literary style in comparison to Suzerain treaties of the time.
Deuteronomy is the book of God's law, written for the benefit of His people--both the ancient Hebrews and the Christian disciples of today. More than a mere legal code, it is God's continuing marriage covenant.
In chapter 3 Paul tells Christian what they are to put off."Members of the Earth" refers to all of our worldly passions and appetites, in particular sexual sin, idolatry, greed and malice. Paul tells us to decisively put to death what is Earthbound in us.
The practical exhortations of this chapter of Paul's letter contains many guidelines for the Christian life. We are enjoined to live in peace with one another, approaching our interactions with fellow Christians with a sense of empathy and kindness.
The third chapter of Colossians invites us to consider the practical applications of Paul's spiritual message. Paul pulls things together, the various elements of this letter, in the third chapter. There is a certain logic to Paul's Letter to the Colossians, wherein each chapter builds on the previous chapter and drawing on several key themes. The first of these is reorienting ourselves to our true life in Christ.
Following this section are two parallel sections. The first has to do with putting off the old man, putting off the old nature and all that inhibits us from growing closer to God. This is where many Christians falter today.
The next section deals with what we are to put on. We are to put on our life together, our common life with other Christians. We are not meant to merely associate with one another or sit next to each other in the pews. Paul speaks to our corporate Christian life which contains a light that is to be manifest to the world.
Finally, Paul tells of the mundane, everyday tasks that involve us living out our life in Christ.
The great theme of the second chapter of Paul's Letter to the Colossians is the sufficiency of Christ. Paul urges Christians to do more than accept the Gospel message on an intellectual level, but to also live it out. In doing so Christians will be filled with a joyful spirit of thanksgiving. Would that our parishes today be filled with such a spirit.
Paul also warns against deceptive philosophy and spiritual forces that run counter to the Gospel. This anticipates the early Church's battle with Gnosticism and other philosophies that opposed orthodox Christian belief.
Toward the end of the first chapter of Paul's Letter to the Colossians, Paul spoke of the Colossians' "love in the spirit". This expression points to a supernatural love beyond mere human affection. He will go on to speak about how the Christian community is to be built up in such a love.
All is centered on Christ. This is a key theme of the letter. Paul praises Christ as the key to everything, the "first born" of Creation, above all other powers and authorities. Christians then, as now, need to open themselves to a greater experience of Grace.
In this section, Paul speaks of his trials and danger he has experienced at sea, on land, and at the hands of false bretheren. And yet his message is hopeful - drawing our attention to the redemptive power of suffering and our ability to cooperate in Christ's suffering.
"Who is this Christ?" is the fundamental question whose answer is cast in one of the great Christological hymns of the Bible. It is far more than great poetry. Paul expands the terms of the Old Testament to speak of Christ as the head of both creation and redemtpion, as well as a new order of creation on a different level of life. Christ is above all authorities, a truth which the Colossians had effectively forgotten.
This dense and theologically rich section of Paul's letter is often forgotten by Christians today. We would do well to read and reread these passages in order to be reminded of the uniqueness of Christ and to enter into both the understanding and living of this message.
The mystery of Christ, the key to the Christian life, is unpacked in four brief chapters in St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. There are many parallels between Ephesians and Colossians, which suggests they may have been written close to the same time. Paul was writing for a particular reason - he had received word that they were threatened by certain heretical ideas. Though he had no founded the church himself, he had close ties to Epaphras and was concerned with the wellbeing of the church there and its members.
We will be taking on the first 23 verses of the first chapter, and consider this section in five basic parts. The initial salutation, the thanksgiving section, an apostolic prayer, and a great poetic hymn about the person of Jesus Christ. Finally, Paul concludes with a statement on our peace and reconciliation with God through Christ.
In Isaiah we read of the Servant songs, a collection of poems or songs speaking of the servant of God. There are ancient Rabbinic sources that see Isaiah 53 as referring explicitly to a suffering Messiah. The Babylonian Talmud, the midrash on Ruth, the Aramaic Targum, the writings of Moses Maimonides, and the mystical texts of the Zohar all contain exegesis to this effect.
We have two strains of thought in these servant songs - the suffering Messiah and the reigning Messiah. Christians have interpreted these texts as referring to the First and Second Comings of Christ. At the critical turning point of the Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples "Who do people say I am?" It is here that Peter gives his confession and Jesus the prediction of his crucifiction. He then goes on to talk about discipleship and his Second Coming. In Mathew 16:27 we read a prediction about the Son of Man at the End of Time.
Christ came 2000 years ago to show us the way, but he showed more. He, of his own will, voluntarily died for our sins and was raised again triumphantly. This triumphance was not seen by everyone and he did not remain on Earth to reign. There is a great deal yet to be established. Our Earth is not yet the Messianic Kingdom; there is more yet to be accomplished in this great drama. A great drama that includes each of us.
The Second Coming of Christ is a key doctrine in our Creed. And yet, it often does not receive a great deal of attention. It necessarily completes and complements the First Coming. Without a lively anticipation of Our Lord's return, our faith is left a great deal diminished.
The Psalms speak to the Messianic Hope and the glory of God in the First and Second Comings. In the beginning of Hebrews, the author quotes from Psalm 102 and produces one of the clearest attributions of divinity to Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
We read about King Ahaz in 2 Kings, during a time when God was with the people of Israel though the king acted wickedly and not in accordance with God's commands. In contrast to the starkness of King Ahaz' reign, Isaiah speaks of a child being given, and of a peace which will have no end.
In Isaiah's prophecies of Christ we see predictions of a final victory. There is nothing ambivalent in the predictions - the Messiah is to usher in a type of fabled age pictured as a time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. This is a glorious picture, a child possessing not only heroic but divine qualities. One of his titles is listed as "Mighty God".
Prophecy plays a key role in the Old Testament understanding of hope, particularly that great Messianic hope. Prophecy should be understood as speaking with Divine Authority to convey the message that God wills for a particular audience. We see from the Bible that becoming a prophet was nothing that anyone took upon themselves. It is all Grace, a gift given not for maturity's sake or for exceptional sanctity. The prophet's role is that of a speaker, a mouthpiece for God. We see this in Chapter 18 of Deuteronomy where God says "I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him"(Deuteronomy 18:18).
It is also clear from the Old Testament texts that false prophecy is a grave matter, and some rules are given to the Jewish people to discern true and false prophets. In the Old Testament tradition, a true prophet cannot contradict the Torah, preach immorally, or make false predictions.
The young David, a singer of God's praises, would come to set up temple worship as a mature man. He was a great sinner, and a great repenter. The Psalms give us a detailed account of his inner dispositions. All of David's great accomplishments look forward to an even greater reality, which is seen in God's promises regarding a "son of David". The Gospel of Mathew, chapter 22, explicity refers back to this promise.
We see the depth of God's promises to David, through the prophet Nathan, in 2 Samuel 7. "Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth form your body, and I will establish his kingdom". 1 Chronicles 17 repeats the promises of 2 Samuel, emphasising the events that are yet to come.
In the promises to David, a Messianic hope arises. This occurs despite David's shortcomings and failures. His profound spiritual yearning and great repentance made him a man after God's own heart. As Christians, we too are sinners. Like David, we too can look forward to the promises that await and present blessings available to us.
Biblical hope is not calculated, not contingent; it is absolute. We know that God always intends good for those who hope in Him. Biblical hope is more of an expectation, with an element of eagerness. As we read in Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for".
The covenent between God and Abraham is an example of Biblical hope. Most important to us God gave a promise to Abraham of universal blessing for mankind (Genesis 12:3). In Genesis 22, we see God call Abraham to sacrfice to Isaac. We also see God confim this universal blessing. God's reason for this blessing is simple - "because you have obeyed my voice" (22:18).
All these promises are prophetic of things which were yet to come. They required a firm conviction of hope, which was often tested. We too must imitate the patriarch's steadfast hope, trusting in God's promises to us.
The Biblical concept of hope appears in the stories of all the great patriarchs. With Jacob, great promises are given despite his imperfections and slow spiritual growth. His son Joseph is a savior-figure, a type, who we can see as looking forward to Jesus Christ. In Genesis 49:10, we read of the "sceptre of Judah". In this prophetic verse we hear of nations being obedient to a leader who is to rise from the tribe of Judah.
This way of reading the texts of the Old Testament is fundamental to the Christian understanding of the Bible as a whole. As far back as Genesis we see the earliest glimmer of God's promises that find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. The Torah offers a way of life that leads to God - it has nothing to do with legalism but rather offers a moral roadmap to God. We ought to think of Torah as instruction; the way in which to go, containing the promises that reflect God's covenent with His chosen people.
The full Biblical concept of hope is a central theme that runs throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. We must first knowthe Scriptures to have a true sense of lively Christian hope. This is a life-giving hope that all Christians must make their own.
Trust and hope come together in the figure of Abraham; In Genesis, God gave promises to Abraham regarding his posterity that would not go fulfilled for many years. How are we to understand his faith? In Hebrews 11, faith is defined in terms of hope. There is an absolute confidence attached to faith - a confidence in something that we have not yet seen. This is the key to understanding the entire drama of the Old Testament - faith and hope are tied together.
Sonship, obedience, and relationship are three vital themes that permeate the Scriptures. When we contrast Genesis with the Gospels, we see the striking parallels between the disobedience of Adam and the obedience of Christ. Adam was called a son of God, who by his inordinate disobedience brought sin to the human race. Christ's sonship is, in a sense, a very different type of sonship.
"Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). In Philippians we read "Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men". In this way, we see how Jesus lived a life opposite that of Adam. As Christians, we are called to imitate Christ in His obedience no matter the cost.
The season of Advent is one of preparation; preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus who reconciled humanity with God. The whole of the Bible from Genesis to the Gospels outlines this preparation. The present series takes a cursory look at salvation history, allowing us to enter into the hope that God's people felt throughout the Scriptures. The Biblical concept of hope is more than a mere wish - it expresses an expectation based on promises given by God. We see the first of these promises in Genesis, the story of creation and God's first covenent with His people.
Modern Christian readers are advised to treat Genesis as Jesus, St. Paul, and the early Church Fathers did; as more than a cobbled-together collection of myths. While Genesis is not a scientific text of astronomy or geology, it is a vitally important and fundamentally true account of God's action, the fall of humanity, and the subsequent hope that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
What was New Testamant Christianity really like? We must look to the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the records of the early Apostolic Fathers. Theirs is a critically important witness to the actual Apostolic Deposit. The foundations of the Apostolic Age were mission and community. The role of the Holy Spirit was evident, as many were drawn to the Church in spite of persecution and no material gain. These believers were literally "incorporated into Christ", to use their own language. Though the faith of the early believers was intensely personal, it was not individualistic.
The central thrust of the Church was not to gather a few people together and meet privately. It was to go out. For this reason, Christianity was a threat to the structure and balance of the worldly powers in the first centuries AD.
Heresy and disunity were the greatest internal threats to the Early Church. Wholeness was very much connected with holiness. The early apologists saw the Church's unity as a reflection of God's own wholeness. Corresponding to the universal call to holiness was the importance of catholicity - universality and unity.
Luke's Acts of the Apostles is an account of some of the pivotal moments in the Church's earliest history. Historical records give us good reason to believe all of the early apostles, with the exception of John, died a violent martyr's death. They kept the faith unaltered, despite being widely scattered and seperated for years. The churches they founded continued in the Faith, and in some cases continue to this day. This is the amazing testament of the first century of Christianity. These early churches were not wholly independent congregations. The historical record shows that the early Church was indeed a catholic (universal) Church held by moral authority and a desire for unity.
Jerusalem and Rome appear as the two central cities for the early Church. Great trials and tribulations faced Christians in both cities including Nero's attempt to blame the great fire of Rome on the Christians. In spite of the difficulties, Christianity continued to spread. Early pastoral letters of Ignatius and Polycarp provide additional extra-Biblical evidence for the early Church's unity and fidelity.
This series provides a survey of early Church history beginning with the Acts of the Apostles and ending around the year 600 with the rise of Islam. The early, undivided Church was a remarkable period in Church history full of lessons for Christians today. We see in this period an organic development of doctrine and practice. The Church withstood both internal and external pressures, and provided a great witness to the pagan world.
Acts of the Apostles is an account of the earliest chapter in the history of the Church, though it is much more than a mere history book. Luke's account contains applications for all people, in all cultures, and in all ages. At the center of everything is the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church on Her mission to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
The Mission of the Church - The Joy of the Gospel/Conclusion
Francis congratulates those already working for the good of the Church, while warning about the specific temptations that face those within the institutional church. An inordinate emphasis on the individual has been a detriment to the mission of the Church, leading to inflated egos and "spiritual worldliness". Francis' exhortation gives Christians a wake-up call to take part in the Church's mission. This call to mission was the fundamental focus of Vatican II. It is as timely today as ever.
The Mission of the Church - Continuing the Council's Exhortation
Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudiummakes alive and practical the lessons of the Second Vatican Council. "With Christ, joy is constantly born anew". The Mission of the Church depends on believing Christians living out the joy of the Gospel in a real and tangible way. This joy is not merely "giddiness"; but rather an enduring certainty that we are infinitely loved. Christians are called each day to renew their encounter with Christ, so that our lives and the lives of others may be changed by God. The problems of our affluent world afford us many excuses to suppress this joy.
The Mission of the Church - Impediments to Mission
Mission is vital to the gospel. Each of the gospels ends with a directive to a mandate to mission. The mission is not based on our abilities but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit that we shine forth. We must respect other religions in that we must respect man in his search for answers and the Holy Spirit who is driving that man. Fatigue, factionalism, de-Christianization, and indifference all make mission more difficult. To combat this, we must be focused on practical witness. We must not, however, ignore real problems in the Church while giving witness.
Vatican II directed the Church outward, through Ad Gentes and echoed 25 years later in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio, which describes an intentional trajectory of where the Church believes that Christ wants us to go in mission. Evangelization is the duty of all Christians, and it brings us closer to Christ. There has been, however, a decline in missionary activity in the church.
This mission comes directly from the Trinity, so it is imperative that all Christians share this love, as the love of God is what gives man his dignity. We must allow others to see how our lives have a vertical interaction with the things that are above, not just horizontally with that which is around us, and permit others the free choice that this knowledge allows.
The encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi instructs us that the teaching of the Church is unchanged and irreplaceable. The task of evangelizing all people is the essential mission of the Church, but the Church has a need to be evangelized herself. This is the spiritual liberation, not a human liberation, as secular humanists and modern atheists might advocate.
The techniques of evangelization must be relevant to the modern world, and centered in witness, but they cannot be updated in such a way that perverts their ultimate aim or ignores the fact that this gift comes from the Holy Spirit.
The Second Vatican Council was the largest council of the Church, beginning under John XXIII in October 1962 and running for four sessions until 1965, ending on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception under Paul VI. It reaffirmed and proclaimed the timeless teaching of the Church, though it did not define much new doctrine, the pastoral thrust was very important. We must follow the instruction of all ecumenical councils, even a council that does not define doctrine. The interpretation of this council can be seen through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which has many references to council documents.
Two foreign words dominated the council, Aggiornamento ("bringing up to date") and Ressourcement ("going back to the sources"). Both complement each other, as without returning to the sources, we cannot be sure what we are bringing up to date, and without bringing the teaching on those sources up to date, we may be stuck in a 16th-century mindset. Various factions vied for more and less of each at the council, but the reforming element prevailed.
Some of the major theologians who influenced the council were Karl Rahner, Yves Congar, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Küng as well as Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II). Many of these major reformers formed the board of the journal Concilium, but in 1974, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI), concerned by some of Concilium's editors' desire for more reforms after Vatican II and not through the Church, formed a rival journal, Communio.
This conflict between those who wanted more reform outside the Church
and those who wanted to come to consensus on the council first would
continue for many years.
This is an exciting time to be Catholic." This episode picks up the rousing theme where the last left it off. Vatican II stressed the Church's need to engage with the modern world. The popes that followed have, with unrelenting urgency, urged every Christian to take up the task of mission. This episode sounds the call anew – in the words of Pope St. John Paul II: "the moment has come to commit all the Church's energies to a new evangelization."
The goal of this series is to equip Catholics to live out the mission of the Church, which is to proclaim Christ to the whole world. We will explore what this means for the faithful laity using the documents of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The documents of the Second Vatican Council will be examined through the hermeneutic of continuity, which was championed by Pope Benedict XVI among others. This council has continued what the Church has always said, but stated with a new vigor and a focus on reaching out to the modern world. Vatican II was a council of reform, not a radical break with the past. The next six sessions will explore several important Papal Encyclicals and other Church documents from Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Francis. These documents will help us grow in faith and learn to share our faith with others.
The Hebrews consecrate the Tabernacle and all of the preparations are completed one year later, even washing the hands and feet of the priests in the middle of a desert. God has created a people fit for God, and we must strive not to fall back into slavery to sin because of it.
Exodus repeats much of the information regarding the tabernacle in the final chapters, signaling the restoration of Israel to God's favor. The Hebrews finish the tabernacle according to God's design.
After the great sin of the golden calf, Moses asks God to see His glory to know His ways. God shows Moses His reflected glory, but shields him from His face. God writes the tablets again, with no changes, to present to the people as a covenant. God instructs the Hebrews to worship Him alone, for He is a jealous god. This jealousy is a desire for an exclusive relationship, as we can see in James 4:5 and 2 Cor 11:2. God also commands that the Hebrews observe the Sabbath and the harvest feasts.
Moses comes back to the people, but shields his face with a veil to prevent the people from seeing God's glory fade. This veil separates the people from God, but Jesus removes that veil, as Jeremiah 31:31ff prophesies.
When Moses delays in coming down from Mt. Sinai, the people demand an idol of gods to go before them. Aaron makes a bull out of the people's gold, in the form of some of the Canaanite gods, and declares it to be the god that brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. God proposes to kill the Hebrews and make a great nation out of Moses, but Moses intercedes for the people. God, through Moses, directs the tribe of Levi to slay those notorious in the production of the golden calf, and for that, the tribe of Levi is ordained for service to the Lord. God tells the people that He will not be among them, for they are a stiff-necked people and He would consume them. He orders the people to take off their ornaments and mourn, and God resides in the tent of meeting outside of the camp.
The law defines the high priest's garments, which includes the twelve tribes of Israel for a remembrance to God. The ordination of priests also includes an ablution which relates to baptism, which can be seen also in Heb 6:1f. God also identifies things that are holy and not for outsiders in the ordination process. There is also a description of the incense altar in the tabernacle.
The people would be taxed for the upkeep of the temple, and this was a way to show the participation of the people in atonement for their sins.
Before the close of the revelation at Sinai, God reiterates the importance of keeping the Sabbath. The tablets are then completed and given to Moses.
The book of Exodus dedicates significant space to the description of the tabernacle of the Lord. This may be difficult to read through, but it is important to the understanding of the worship of God. The Ark of the Covenant points to Mary (as we can see in Luke 1:35 and in the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, similar to 2 Samuel 6, and Revelation 12), and the holy place of the tabernacle and the holy of holies are but a shadow, or type, of what exists in Heaven. This description is seen as well in the book of Revelation.
The Ark of the Covenant is overlaid in gold and a cover called the Mercy Seat, where God is enthroned, is over it, with two cherubim, angels with wings and human faces. Inside were the tablets of the ten commandments, Aaron's staff, and a jar of mana. These things reflect the Word of God, the priesthood, and the bread that came down from Heaven, respectively.
The table of the bread of the presence is also described, which is a table that contains 12 loaves of bread, offered to God but also shared by men and a symbol of God's covenant with man. Also in the holy place is a lampstand, which has a figure of budding almonds, a sign of life which may also be reflected in Num 17:8, where budding almonds also show favor from God.
The tabernacle was a tent that was constructed to be erected whenever they were in a place and was designed to be movable. The tabernacle tent is a box decorated by rich curtains, divided into a large holy place separated by a veil from a much smaller cube of the holy of holies.
God wishes to dwell with His people, to sanctify the space where His holy place is, God asks us to give freely to worship Him in the way that He commands us, and that this sacrifice should be a worship of some value. This reverence and value increases as the holy things get closer to the Ark of the Covenant. Unholy worship can be punished, as were Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10.
The laws of God are in many cases very practical and based on the environment that we are in. Strangers should be cared for and not abused by being thrown into the cold without a cloak or placed into debt. The escaped beasts of burden of a stranger should be returned to a stranger's owner as well as it would be for your own. The Hebrews were strangers in Egypt, and they should remember that when dealing with strangers.
Moses returns to the people and recites the law and then writes it down. The ratification of the law is done through blood, as noted by Hebrews 9:18. The people say that they will obey the law and the people feast as part if the ratification.
Exodus 21-23 forms what is known as the Book of the Covenant. This continues after the Ten Commandments with a discussion of the laws regarding slavery, as the Hebrews were just recently delivered from slavery. Slavery here should not be confused with the racial slavery that was common in Europe later. The laws on slavery describe the practice of this institution as well as the ways in which a slave may be freed.
Those who have committed violent acts may flee to a sanctuary city, but if the act is premeditated, the person will be put to death, even if that person clings to the altar of God.
The law delivered at Sinai also limits the amount of punishment to the extent of the injury, "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth," known as the lex talionis.
Moses' father-in-law Jethro hears that he has led the Israelites to freedom and seeks him out. Moses and Aaron eat a sacrificial meal with Jethro, a Midianite who offers sacrifice. This was before the Law was given. Jethro tells Moses to intercede for the people, to bring their cases to God, and to bring the law to them. Jethro tells Moses to appoint people to oversee the people and to delegate administration to them.
Moses then visits Sinai and receives the law from God. Moses forbids the people from approaching the mountain while he is receiving the law. The Ten Commandments have various divisions in different traditions, though these are not necessarily all commands, as some, such as, ``I am the Lord your God.''
- Taking a short break from the regular Exodus series, this week's podcast is a recent talk on the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit Talk
The Holy Spirit is not a force of God, He is God Himself, and one ofthe three persons of God. The Holy Spirit is referred to as early as Gen 1:2, but is not clearly revealed until Jesus' ministry. It is the Holy Spirit who prompts us to holiness and floods our hearts with love (Rom 5:5) and thus we should cooperate with the Holy Spirit, listen to His promptings, and cultivate the fruits of the Holy Spirit given in Galatians 5. We may cultivate our relationship with Him through prayer and through prayerful study of the scriptures.
The Hebrews have passed the Red Sea but they need water. When they happen upon a watering place, the water is bitter, and the people murmur. God shows Moses a tree, much as God shows the people the law, and the water becomes sweet. God uses this to test the people to see if they will now walk in His ways.
Later, the people are hungry and murmur again. This time God provides them with mana and quail, but instructs the people to take only what they need for that day because God will provide. Those who stored up more than they needed for that day found that their food spoiled. Paul comments on this in 2 Corinthians 8:14.
The people murmured again desiring water, and Moses, fearing for his life, sought out the Lord, who told Moses to strike a rock with his rod in the presence of the elders, to bring forth water.
The Hebrews encounter the Amalekites, and fight them. Moses raises his hands in persistent prayer and the people help him to hold his hands up. Because of this, the Hebrews win in battle. God promises to blot out the Amalekites, and the people are called to remember this in Deuteronomy 25:17-19. This is further recalled in 1 Sam 15, and in Esther, Haman, the descendant of King Agag of the Amalekites plots against the Jews.
The Hebrews leave Egypt and the Lord is with them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. After the Hebrews leave Egypt, the Egyptians reflect on the fact that they have lost millions of people from the land, and pursue the Hebrews. They reach a sea, which is translated as the Red Sea in Greek but may have originally been the sea of reeds in Hebrew, and possibly connected to a phrase meaning the sea at the end.
God parts the sea for the Hebrews to show His power, but closes the waters and drowns the Egyptians to save His people.
God tells Moses that He will bring one final plague. All the firstborn of the land will die. There is no more discussion about Pharaoh letting the Hebrews go. The time for negotiation is over, and now God will let both the Hebrews and the Egyptians recognize that He is God.
The Hebrews will be saved from this plague by taking a lamb, bonding with it for five days, and then sacrificing the lamb as a substitute sacrifice from their firstborn. This is then instituted as an eternal remembrance in the month of Aviv (later known as Nisan). Leavening agents are to be purged at this time, and the idea of leavening as corruption is a common metaphor, which can be seen in 1 Cor 5:6-8.
Those who wish to partake of the Passover tradition are to be circumcised before they can add join in the tradition. This parallels baptism. The firstborn are to be redeemed, and this tradition is cited in Luke 2:23 when Jesus is taken to the temple.
The firstborn of the Egyptians die and the Hebrews are not only allowed to go, but are driven out.
God continues to send plagues on the Egyptians, sending the plague of pestilence on the livestock, and then boils and hail, warning Pharaoh publicly with the plague of hail to shelter the livestock, but those who did not fear God did not shelter them. After that Moses warns of a plague of locusts which devastate the land, and Pharaoh's advisors tell him to give in, because of all the damage that has been done. Pharaoh offers Moses a compromise but will not let the women or children go. The plague of locusts comes, and after that the plague of darkness.
Through all of this, God is making the Hebrews, who were enslaved, into a mighty nation.
Moses asks Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go to sacrifice to God, but Pharaoh instead makes their work harder, as slaves are not to petition Pharaoh. The overseers see that the workload is too much but Pharaoh calls the workers idle, as they are asking for time to spend worshipping God.
When Pharaoh refuses, God hardens Pharaoh's heart initially to show His great power, but soon Pharaoh hardens his own heart. God provides the sign of a rod that turns into a snake, similar to a trick that the Egyptian magicians would do, but God's miracle proves that it is no trick. When Pharaoh is not moved, God turns the river red, and then sends a plague of frogs and then gnats. Even the magicians are convinced that this is not a trick at this point, but Pharaoh is unmoved. After a plague of flies, Pharaoh offers to allow the Hebrews to worship in Egypt, but Moses knows that this will merely anger the Egyptians. Pharaoh then allows Moses to sacrifice outside of Egypt, but would not let the Hebrews go.
Moses sees a bush that is burning but not consumed. He hears a voice telling him to take off his shoes because it is a holy place. This is not because it is inherently holy, but because God is in this place. God tells Moses that He has seen His people's suffering and that He will uses Moses to deliver them from Egypt.
Moses protests, asking why God has chosen him. God explains that He will give Moses the words to say. God also gives Moses the name YHWH, meaning "I am who I am," to give to the Hebrews as the name of the God of their ancestors. This name was already given in Genesis, but it may have fallen into disuse while in Egypt. This name tells us something about who God is. He is eternal, is self-existent, and the source and sustainer of all that exists.
God turns Moses' rod into a snake and back into a rod, and shows him other signs that show that He is the Lord of over life and death, and over sickness and healing. He is the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which indicates that He continues to be their god, implying that there is life after death.
Moses protests that he is not eloquent, but God will use Aaron to speak for Moses. God will harden Pharaoh's heart, though there are many times when Pharaoh will harden his own heart, and Moses tells Pharaoh that if he does not let the Hebrews go, He will take Pharaoh's firstborn.
Upon returning, God tries to kill Moses for not circumcising his sons, but Moses' wife Zipporah circumcises their children and saves his life.
Exodus is named after the Greek phrase for the road out, which is an appropriate term for the events of the book. Ex 12:40 states that the time in Egypt was 430 years, but the precise dating of the events lends to two possibilities. The events can be dated in 1 Kings 6:1 to 480 years before the fourth year of the reign of Solomon, which suggests the 15th century BC. Ex 1:11 suggests that the Exodus occurred during the reign of Rameses II in the 13th century.
In Gen 17:7-8, God makes a covenant to be Abraham's god, and it is through Moses in Exodus that there is a mediator to this old covenant. Ex 19:6 describes the people of God to be a kingdom of priests and to mediate God's grace to the world, a fact that 1 Peter reminds us of.
The family of Jacob remained in Egypt, but a new regime comes to power and agitates against the Hebrews, saying that there are too many of them. The Hebrews were put to hard labor, and midwives were told to kill the male children, but the midwives feared God and did not kill them. Pharaoh demanded that the boys be cast in the Nile. Possibly for this reason, pharaoh's name is not mentioned in Exodus but the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are.
Moses is born to a Hebrew woman, who hides him and places him in a basket in the reeds beside the river. Pharaoh's daughter draws Moses out and names him for the word for drawing out, a Hebrew word, but one that sounds like an Egyptian name.
When Moses sees an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian, but this is discovered, and Moses flees, and helps a Midianite family. For this kindness, the father gives Moses his daughter Zipporah.
Pope Benedict, in The Door of Faith, gives several practical methods for growing in faith, which can be summarized by cultivating, professing, intensifying celebration of, living, and rediscovering the faith. Benedict asks us to profess our faith publicly during the year of faith.
The year of faith also provides an opportunity for love, as faith requires charity.
Porta Fidei - Introduction
The study of the Bible is part of the faith that we are asked to cultivate in the year of faith that the Pope has asked us to celebrate
in the letter titled The Door of Faith. It is through this faith that we are brought into life, and through the proclamation of the word of God that we discover this faith. This must be faith in the God of Love, as Galatians 5:6 describes Faith working through Love.
Paul VI also published a letter, The Credo of the People of God, that complements the letter The Door of Faith.
Jacob dies and Joseph embalms him and buries him in Caanan. Joseph's brothers beg him to forgive them, stating that they are the servants of God, and Joseph forgives them. Joseph dies and is embalmed and buried in Egypt. During the Exodus, his body will be returned to the land of Israel.
Jacob, nearing his death, begins to bless his sons. Jacob claims Joseph's Egyptian-born sons as his own, incorporating them into his heritage. This doubles Joseph's tribal allotment. Jacob also blesses Ephraim, the secondborn, more than Manasseh, the firstborn. Jacob also gives Joseph a mountain slope, and all the blessings on Joseph's children will be remembered in Heb 11:21.
Jacob remembers Reuben as powerful and unruly, and because he took up with Bilhah, he is no longer given preeminence. Simeon and Levi are divided, and their tribes will be scattered, because they are weapons of violence. Levi is not given a region in the tribal allotment, and Simeon is given a region entirely surrounded by Judah.
Judah will be praised, and rulers will come from him, and we look to the eventual coming of Christ through this. Zebulun is given the crossroads from the trade coming over the sea. Issachar is also given an area of trade, but will have to labor for it. Dan is given his portion, but will eventually be dispossessed from it. Joseph is given many blessings.
After all of this, Jacob dies.
Israel goes to Egypt and sees Joseph, his son once again. When he meets with phararoh, Israel identifies himself as a shepherd, which means that the Egyptians will set them apart in the land. Joseph buys all the land in Egypt for pharaoh in exchange for feeding the people, and the people are grateful.
Israel begins to prepare for his death and makes Joseph promise to bury him outside of Egypt and in the land of his forefathers.
Jacob sends his sons (except Benjamin) to Egypt to buy grain during the famine. Joseph is shocked to see his brothers and accuses them of being spies as part of a plan to test them. Joseph consents to give his brothers grain, but keeps Simeon to ensure that they prove that they are not spies. Joseph gives them their grain but secrets the money that they paid into the sacks of grain.
When they return to Jacob, they discover the money and fear the retribution of Joseph for the appearance of theft. Reuben rashly promises to return Simeon over the lives of his own sons, but Judah takes the lead and convinces them to return together, with Benjamin.
Joseph contrives to implicate Benjamin in a theft, this time of his silver cup. When he threatens to carry Benjamin off to slavery, Judah and his brothers do not abandon Benjamin, as they did with Joseph. When Joseph sees this, he reveals himself and together the brothers make plans for the family's future.
Joseph was purchased by Potipher, but God was with Joseph. Joseph was entrusted with the matters of Potipher's house, and Potipher's wife attempts to seduce Joseph, but he refuses because it is wicked. When he refuses, she falsely accuses him and Potipher throws him into prison.
When he is in prison, Pharaoh's butler comes to Joseph and asks him to interpret a dream. Joseph tells the butler that interpretation of dreams come from God, and gives him a very positive interpretation, asking the butler to remember him when he comes into power. When the baker hears this, the baker asks him to interpret a dream, but this is a dream that foretells that baker's death.
These things come to pass, but the baker does not remember Joseph to Pharaoh until Pharaoh has a dream, and then Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dream indicates years of prosperity followed by years of famine and that they should take from their prosperity to prepare for the years of famine.
For this, Pharaoh sets Joseph over his house and all of Egypt. Joseph assimilates into the culture, takes a wife, Asenath, and has the children Manasseh, for forgetting his hardships in his father's house, and Ephraim, for the fruitfulness that God has given Joseph.
Joseph's brothers did not take kindly to him, but even more so after he has a dream in which they bow down to him. The brothers conspire againt Joseph, but Reuben convinces them not to kill Joseph, but rather to trap Joseph in a well, and sell him to Ishmaelites, who sell Joseph to Potipher, a functionary of the pharaoh. The brothers convince Jacob that Joseph had been killed by an animal.
Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. The first, Er, marries Tamar, but the Lord puts him to death because he is wicked. Judah instructs his next son, Onan, to take Tamar as his wife, but he refuses to consummate the marriage, and leaves Tamar in a precarious state in relation to the family as a childless daughter-in-law. God also kills Onan for this act. Judah promises Tamar Shelah when he grows up, but when this does not happen, she pretends to be a prostitute and conceives twins by Shelah. Tamar will be one of the women mentioned in the genealogy of Christ.
Dinah is raped by Shechem, who seeks to make her his wife. When his father, Hamor, pleads on his behalf, the sons of Jacob convinced Shechem's family to be circumcised so that they could slay all of them while they were laid up after the surgery. When Jacob discovers this, he rebukes them but says nothing more until he is on his deathbed. Similarly, when Reuben takes up with Bilhah, his father's concubine, Jacob says nothing at the time.
God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar there, and so he tells his family to put away their idols, purify themselves and change their clothes (similar to Ex 19:10-11). After this, God tells Jacob that his name is now Israel and promises him the land.
Rachel has her second son, whom she names Ben-oni, which could mean the son of her sorrow or the son of her strength, but Jacob calls him Benjamin, son of my right hand. Rachel dies, with her eyes toward Bethlehem. Jer 31:15 refers to this in a prophecy that would be fulfilled with the slaughter of the innocents.
Jacob returns home, knowing that this means that he will need to confront Esau. On the way, he is met by angels of the Lord, who are described the same way as the angels at Bethel. In the end, Jacob sends a series of gifts in an effort to appease Esau.
Jacob wrestles with a man, begging for a blessing, but discovers that this is actually an angel. The angel blesses him and changes Jacob's name to Israel for one who wrestles with God.
When Jacob meets with Esau, Esau embraces him.
After Jacob has Joseph, he prepares to leave Laban. He offers to take as his wages all speckled and spotted lambs. Laban sent all speckled and spotted lambs away so that they could not breed, but Jacob places spotted rods in front of the lambs, and they all produce speckled and spotted offspring.
When Jacob leaves Laban, Rachel steals Laban's household gods, and when confronted, places them under a saddle claiming that she was having her period and avoids being searched. Jacob agrees not to mistreat Laban's daughters and they both agree not to return to the other's territory.
As Isaac nears death, he prepares to give Esau a blessing, but Rebekah conspires with Jacob to take this blessing by dressing him in Esau's clothes. Jacob gives Isaac food and wine, and Isaac blesses him. When he learns of the deception, he will not take back his blessing, as it has already been spoken, and he tells Esau that he will serve his brother, but that eventually he will break free.
Jacob flees from Esau up to Haran and Esau takes Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter, as a wife. While Jacob is traveling, he has a vision of angels going up and down a ladder from Heaven to earth. In this place, Jacob promises to give God a tenth of everything if God will watch over him.
Jacob travels to Laban, and serves him, and when Laban offers him payment, he asks for Laban's daughter, Rachel in marriage, but Laban gives him his other daughter, Leah, and Jacob is convinced to work longer for Laban for Rachel. Seeing that Jacob preferred Rachel, God opened Leah's womb and she gave Jacob many children, but Jacob still preferred Rachel, and both wives try to give Jacob more children.
Isaac prayed that his wife Rebekah have a child, and she had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob was born grasping Esau's heel, which is prophetic given how he would later contend with God, and references to this can be seen in Hosea 12 and Micah 1. Jacob convinces Esau to give away his birthright in a moment of hunger.
When a famine fell upon the land, Jacob went to Gerar, and Abimelech, the king. God told Isaac not to journey to Egypt, so he remained in Gerar. Isaac became rich, and Abimelech sent him away.
Sarah dies and Abraham makes a contract with the Hittites to purchase a plot of land to bury Sarah. Nearing the end of his life, Abraham instructs his servant that Isaac must not take a Canaanite wife, but rather a wife from Abraham's country. When he has done this, Isaac must settle in the land of Canaan, which God has promised for him.
The servant prays that God might give a sign identifying the woman to choose for Isaac's wife, that she might offer water to both him and his camels. This woman is Rebekah, and she hastens to Isaac in the Canaan land, and they are married.
Abraham marries Keturah after Sarah's death, and has more children, but his heir remains Isaac.
Lot leaves Zoar, and his daughters wanted to have children, so they got Lot drunk so that they might get pregnant by him, and through Lot they bear Moab and Ben-ammi, the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites.
Abraham goes to Gerar, where he encounters Abimelech. Abimelech, not knowing that Sarah is married, wants to add her to his harem, but God, wishing to preserve the lineage of Isaac, tells Abimelech in a dream that she is married and he confronts Abraham and Sarah and sends them away with gifts. Abimelech later comes to Abraham and asks that Abraham might remember his kindness with his descendants when Abraham comes into power.
Sarah names her son Isaac, for laughter, and when she sees Isaac with Ishmael, his older half-brother, she sends Ishmael and Hagar away, but an angel of the lord tells Hagar that Ishmael will also be a great nation.
God tests Abraham and asks him to sacrifice his son, but before he can do it, an angel stops Abraham, and God blesses him for not holding anything back. Gal 3:15ff points out that the promises to Abraham were made to him and his offspring, singular, meaning Christ. The sacrifice of Isaac also is a precursor of the willing sacrifice of Christ, and of the resurrection (for if Isaac had died, God would have to have raised him to fulfill his promises).
God promises Abram that he will be the father of a multitude of nations, and thus names him Abraham, which is a name that bears similarity to other words that mean father of a multitude. The covenant comes with a command to be circumcised. God promises that Abraham will have a child from Sarah, who laughs when she hears it, because she had been infertile and now she was much older.
Abraham shows the Lord tremendous hospitality, and God tells him that He will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleads with God to spare the righteous, knowing that Lot and his family are there. God declares that He will not destroy the city if even 10 righteous people are there.
Angels of God come to Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot invites them to come to his home to keep them from the people of the city, as the people there were notorious for their wicked treatment of men, a sentiment that you can also find in verses Isaiah 1:10ff, Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 16:49-50, and Jude 1:6-7.
The people in the town threaten to rape the angels of God. Lot, in desperation, offers the men his daughters to protect the angels, but the angels protect Lot. In the morning, the angels tell Lot to take his family and leave the city so that they may destroy it, and Lot begs that he be allowed to settle in a nearby city, which he is allowed to do. Lot is pressed to leave but his wife looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt.
After rescuing Lot, a priest named Melchizedek blesses Abram with a sacrifice of bread and wine, and Abram gives him a tenth of everything. Heb 7:9ff says that Levi, who receives tithes, tithes through Abraham, and that if Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (as Ps 110 says), He would have to have an indestructible life.
Abram knows that his descendents will be numerous, but he does not know that they will be his children, but God makes a covenant that Abram's children will have the land, with Abram, in the middle of animals cut into portions, essentially declaring that if the covenant be broken, the same death will fall upon the person who breaks the covenant.
After this, Sarai, who was barren, suggests that Abram should try to have a child with her maid, Hagar. Sarai than demands that Abram choose between her and Hagar, and Abram tells Sarai that she may do with her maid as she chooses. Sarai deals harshly with Hagar, and Hagar flees, but an angel convinces Hagar to come back and submit, telling her that God will multiply her children as well.
Abram's family comes from Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram's father, Terah, meant to move to Canaan, but only came as far as Haran. God calls Abram to Canaan. There is some confusion over some of the dating in the text, but we know that from Acts 7, Abram did not move until after his father died. God promises the land to Abram's children, and Abram builds an altar there. This is the first of several times that Abram is described as building altars.
When a famine came into the land, he left to Egypt with his wife, Sarai, Lot, and his people, but when asked who Sarai is, Abram responds that she was his sister (in reality, his half-sister). This causes a dispute with the pharaoh, who attempts to take Sarai as his wife.
When they return to Canaan, Abram lets Lot his portion, and Lot chooses the more prosperous land of Sodom and Gomorrah. When Lot is captured during a rebellion in the land, Abram seeks him out and routs the army.
After the flood, God gives Noah and his family the land to populate, but instructs them that they are not to eat animals with their blood, as life is in the blood. This is one of the laws that the Council of Jerusalem stated apply to Gentiles.
Noah grows a vineyard, and becomes drunk and naked. His son Ham sees him in his vulnerable state and does nothing to help, though his brothers clothe Noah. Noah curses Ham's son, Canaan, which has prophetic importance as the civilizations of the Semites and the Canaanites would later be in conflict.
Men then turned to build a great city, known as Babel, with a tower in the heavens, but this sort of prideful overreach is punished by God by destroying the tower, scattering the people, and confusing their language.
Though there are poetic elements of the creation account in Genesis, there are important things that are related in Genesis. There was a first man and first woman, and they fell from grace due to man's sin, and though they have an adversary in Satan, God does not abandon them, even though the effects of sin are immediately visible in Cain.
Genesis states that the sons of God had children with the daughters of men, and there are multiple interpretations as to what this may mean. Some say that the sons of God are men of the Sethite line and the daughters of men are women of the Cainite line. Another interpretation, supported by Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:17, is that the sons of God were fallen angels. This interpretation may explain why the lifespans before the flood are recorded as so long. A newer interpretation is that the sons of God may be ancient rulers who claimed to rule by divine right, but may have been demonically possessed.
God gives man ample warning through Noah that He is going to send a flood. The account in Genesis bears some similarity to other flood accounts in the region, but in other accounts, there are significant differences as to the reasons for the flood and the results of the flood. The flood mirrors in some aspects the account of creation, though the 40 days and nights of rain, the 150 days of flooding, and the time spent testing to see if the land was clear were much longer than the time described in creation.
God declares that He will not again curse the ground, though He knows that the human heart is inclined toward evil from youth.
Genesis 2 gives us another perspective on creation with an emphasis on man. Man is given the land to cultivate, and Adam is given Eve to help him. God instructs Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but he eats deliberately, knowing that this is a sin, and that it is grave matter. This meets the criteria of mortal sin. We can see the effects of Adam's sin immediately after, when Cain slays Abel.
The first twelve chapters of Genesis concern the origin of Man. The creation is structured into seven days, but appears to be a thematic categorization of creation into ages, as the word for day is used shortly thereafter to also mean an era. The universe was created by God, who existed before everything else and created it out of nothing.
Much of the scholarship of the book of Genesis from the 18th century to the early 20th century was based on Wellhausen's Documentary Hypothesis that the Torah was collated from multiple sources based on various factions. The evidence for this comes from the type of content in portions of the Torah, and in particular the words used for the name of God.
The theory proposes that there were four authors of all of Torah, the Jahwist author, whose writings are theorized to be very personal, at around the time of Solomon in 950 BC, the Elohist author, who was supposed to be much more philosophical and less personal, writing about 100 years later, the Deuteronomist author writing at the time of Josiah's reforms in 600 BC to support the reforms, and the Priestly author, who is supposed to be concerned with laws and rituals, writing after the end of the Babylonian Exile in 500 BC, and all of these various sources were later reconciled by an editor or editors. Please note that this is all conjecture and not endorsed by the Catholic Church.
No hard evidence for such documents exists, and similar differences exist in the writings of other ancient Semitic cultures. In practice, this theory tends to prevent a deeper faith.
Genesis is a book of origins, as the name suggests, but it is in many ways more addressed in the New Testament than the Old Testament. Genesis, along with the next four books of the Bible, was substantially written by Moses, though some portions, such as the death of Moses in Deuteronomy, may have been written or edited by others.
Genesis' origin differs profoundly from the Semitic origin stories of other cultures, which serves to highlight how different our faith is from that of other religions. Notably, the origin stories explain the gods emerge from the chaos. Genesis is suitable for instruction in the faith and not be dismissed.
You may have noticed the six-week hiatus in the podcast between Thessalonians and Genesis. This space was once occupied by several lessons from an old study on Ephesians. On account of poor sound quality and missing episodes, the editors thought it better to take them off the air.
In strong terms, Paul commands the people not to associate with those who live in idleness. This is not simply lending a helping hand to those who are down on their luck, but to those who refuse to work and simply live on others and gossip. Paul commands such people to attend to their work quietly.
In contrast, 1 Cor 5:9ff describes a situation where those who are wicked must be driven out, but this is not that situation. Such people are not enemies, so we are to help them by warning them.
The second coming will be a terrible day for some, but it will be the end of the journey for the faithful. Paul prays that the word of the Lord speed on as the Thessalonians have been doing and are continuing to do. Paul prays that God directs His people to Himself.
The book of Daniel predicts that a desolating sacrilege will appear in the temple. People had thought that the desecration of the temple in the time of the Maccabees was this, but Jesus says that this is yet to come. This is an antichrist who will cause sacrifice to cease. There will be a tribulation and while some will make it to the day of the Lord, some who remain faithful will die before getting there.
Paul addresses the likely reason for this second letter, a misapprehension of the second coming. Some had been caught up in the belief that the second coming had happened or was about to happen soon. This idea may have come from a false letter of Paul.
The end times will be accompanied by a man who is against God's law but who exalts himself over God, and this was something that the people would have understood. Most men, including Christians will fall away but those who endure to the end will be saved.
When the Lord is revealed on the last day, He will be revealed from Heaven, in power, and in the fire of justice, which may or may not also be a literal fire. God will punish those who do not know God and refuse to obey Him. Yet it is by God's grace that we may know Him.
Thessalonica is growing in faith. Paul's catechesis is an exercise in growing in holiness. The Thessalonians were eager to hear the good news and were preparing for the second coming. Paul sees that they have already grown in love, and Christians must have love to care for their fellow Christians.
On the last day, those who persecuted Christians will be judged as well as those who were persecuted, who are being made worthy of the kingdom of God.
Paul instructs Christians to encourage those in our communities who may be struggling in faith, calling on similar statements in Colossians 3 and Romans 12.
Paul tells is that we must be prepared for the end times, and not be in the dark like the rest of mankind. Isaiah 59 may have been in Paul's mind when he wrote this section. Paul uses a metaphor of armor here that is similar to the one in Ephesians but with different metaphors.
Paul instructs Christians not to shun manual labor but to engage others in their lives in Christian love so that we are command the respect of others. We must be blameless and holy on the last day, since it will be on that state that we will be judged. There will not be a period in which some are left behind or a Rapture, and we must celebrate the death of any righteous man as he returns to God.
Paul calls Christians to catechize and root the new disciples in faith and in practice, but he focuses on three issues in chapter 4 under the subject of holiness: sexual issues, love of the brotherhood, and those Christians who have died. For Christians, it is vitally important that they do not give those who would oppose them an excuse that a sexual scandal might afford, and Paul uses language to describe this that may be shocking to modern readers.
God wishes us to become sanctified, which is a process that continues through our lives. Heb 12:14 commands us to be holy, else we will not see God. Sexuality is a mutual gift for giving and receiving by married couples, and this necessarily means that Christians cannot be unchaste, and so Paul calls Christians to control themselves sexually, and God will avenge the wrongs that have been done against others sexually.
Paul is driven to Athens and preaches there, but is not able to return to Thessalonica to continue preaching there, and sends a letter back to them explaining his great desire to return there with Timothy. Paul also says that we must be vigorous in our faith, even to the point of suffering.
Paul did not preach for prestige or glory, unlike other false teachers. He has worked intensely and personally with the people to make people's lives worthy of God. In Philippians 1:6 and Philippians 2:13, Paul speaks of how God works through us to bring His work to completion. Paul is deeply grieved by his inability to get back to Thessalonica.
When Saul first encountered the Christian faith, he would have been offended that a man who claimed to be the Messiah was hung on a tree, and such men are described as being cursed.
Paul visits Cyprus as part of his first missionary journey, and they have a disagreement as to whether the Gentile converts must become Jews first by circumcision, which Paul is opposed to. Paul returns to Antioch, and his second missionary journey follows, which will take him to Thessalonica. Paul will be visiting the temple there, and so not to cause any unnecessary confrontation, he makes sure that his traveling companion is circumcised.
Paul exorcises a demon from a slave girl in Philippi who is following them. This causes an uproar from the men who are making money from this slave girl's visions. Due to mistreatment, Paul is let go to leave and he continues on to Thessalonica, a trading hub. Paul makes converts there but he is again chased out of town. Paul continues to Berea and Athens, pushed far by the Holy Spirit.
On Paul's journey, he is imprisoned, but through an earthquake, he persuades the jailer to convert to Christianity. Paul is released and goes to Thessalonica, where he preaches on the subject of the messiah for three weeks. The Jewish establishment sent troublemakers to cause a riot, and Paul is forced out of the city. The Jews in Beroea receive him well.
A large number of the converts coming into the church are Gentiles and Paul praises them for turning from from idols and to God.
Paul's epistles to the Thessalonians show a vivid snapshot of the church in mission. Paul was sent from the church in Antioch as a mission to the Gentiles to Cyprus.
The Antiochan church was being torn apart by the question of whether Gentiles must be circumcised. The Council of Jerusalem would decide that Gentiles must abstain from idolatry, abstain from sexual immorality and abstain from meat with blood. Paul returns from Jerusalem with this information to Antioch. There he splits with Barnabus and continues his missionary journeys returning to Greece and Crete.
Paul tells Philemon that he could be bold enough to command him to do what is required, he chooses to appeal out of love. Paul appeals to Philemon to take Onesimus back as he is useful to Philemon and to Paul, with whom he has formed a special bond.
Paul also says that he will be arriving to visit Philemon shortly. His unstated intention in doing this may be to pressure Philemon to do what he is calling him to do before his visit.
The Epistle to Philemon is not strictly speaking a pastoral epistle, as it does not concern the pastoral care of a church. It is, however, a very personal letter written to Philemon, who was a leader in Colossae of some means and influence. Philemon had a slave by the name of Onesimus, who ran away to a major city, most likely Ephesus, where he became a Christian and met Paul.
Paul knows that Onesimus must return to Philemon, and so writes a letter to Philemon in order to plead for Onesimus' favorable return. We know that a later bishop in the area was named Onesimus, so Paul's letter appears to have been successful, and perhaps Onesimus included this letter in the canon of scripture to show a more personal aspect of Paul. Paul appeals to Philemon by reminding him of his reputation for love, and thus sets the stage for his plea to Philemon.
Those who would pastor must remind the faithful to obey legitimate authority and engage in God's work. Pastors must also not engage in controversies. A pastor must not drive those who hold erroneous beliefs from the faith, but must encourage all to come to the true faith from wherever they are.
All Apostolic Ministry is supposed to spark the faith, inform the faith with a knowledge of the truth and encourage godly living. Paul has no difficulty with encouraging godly living in this letter, and Paul encourages Titus and all of us to do this. We must make a break with the worldly things and live soberly.
Paul also makes one of the strongest statements that Jesus is God in Titus 2:13.
Priests must be able to see and identify heresy, root it but yet not draw attention to it, so as to enable heresy. These priests must be dedicated to their work. Likewise, mothers must be serious about the faith and teach it to their children so that they do not fall into the trap of this sort of heresy.
Titus was close to Paul, chosen as an example of how faithful Gentiles could be to Christ. Paul begins the epistle to Titus by proclaiming himself to be a slave to Christ, showing radical devotion to Christ. Paul knows that as a pastor, he must spark a faith response to God. The Church must impart knowledge of the Truth and the sure hope that those who respond will attain eternal life.
Paul closes the letter with personal notes about many of his fellow Christians, like Timothy and Mark, whom Paul requests visit him, Demas, who is in love with the present world, many missionaries who are going off to carry on the message of Christ, as well as Claudia, one of the women involved in the early Church and Linus, who is probably the same Linus who will one day succeed Peter as Pope.
Christ is returning to judge the living and the dead, and Paul orders Timothy to educate Christians in the faith, but this is not an obligation of Timothy alone. We must all take on the task of holding the people to the faith rather than the other paths of erroneous beliefs.
Some Christians may be easily misled into error, but we must be prepared to defend the faith and avoid being drawn into the sin of others who will proclaim these. Paul notes that the Bible is useful for correction, just as tradition is. We must seek not signs or prophecies but rather the true faith; and we have seen this lust for signs exploited as far back as Pharaoh's priests.
Paul tells us a few characteristics of the last days. While the early Church was expecting an immediate coming of the last days, the prophecy in Daniel leaves the exact time indeterminate. Antichrists will rise to mislead people but for mercy, the time of the final judgment is being delayed.
When we become Christians, we are incorporated into Christ. Some teachers preach a perverted Christianity which is not a part of life in Christ, and we are told to avoid such things and those who traffic in them. These errors may be allowed to persist so that we may be challenged to hold to God's will in purity. We must also correct these people in gentleness and not in anger.
Paul tells us to be strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, but to expect to suffer as Christians. Paul also instructs Timothy to pass on the message that he has taught to trustworthy men. Paul uses several analogies for the Christian life, the farmer who must work hard, the soldier who must detach himself from civilian life, and the athlete who must obey certain rules and discipline.
Paul is in prison and has been abandoned by some of his prior compatriots. We must never be ashamed to testify to our faith in God. This testimony comes from the Holy Spirit, but we must act on this spirit. We do have the ability to reject God's will, but if we choose to testify to the Lord, His truth will come through us.
Paul's Second Letter to Timothy comes later in his life, as he is nearing his death. The content is markedly different, though the language suggests it may have been written by the same scribe.
Paul connects the Christian's life to that of God. We are to not be timid but to be prepared to act on our Christian duties, even if we should need to rekindle our faith from time to time.
Those who came to Christ in slavery were asked to continue in the same way. It was not possible for the Church to afford the complete release of slaves at that time. Christians are asked to tame their passions and use them for the Lord. Even a rich man may be generous with money and use that money to do God's work.
The widows who dedicate themselves to the Church should be ones were were dedicated to one man in marriage. Similarly, while the overseers (a position in the church that would later become the position of bishop) of the Church may have work besides preaching, they should receive double honor for their fidelity to work in the Church despite other obligations.
For believers who go astray into sin, if they persist, on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15) they should be rebuked in the presence of all. We do not want to participate in others' sins.
In the society surrounding the early Christian community, there was no support network for widows. Paul instructs that if an older woman's husband dies, and this woman devotes herself to the work of the Church and vows never to marry again, the community should support that woman if the woman's family is not present. Younger women should not be pressed prematurely into this sort of vow.
Paul returns to the subject of a particular heresy that is threatening the church at that time, but he instructs Timothy not to engage the arguments about it and does not specify the heresy here. We know that they were talking in part about food laws and imposing further restrictions on the Church. These restrictions are not necessarily wrong and may in fact be helpful, but these doctrines are not to be placed on the people. Mark 7 tells us that all foods are morally clean. Nothing is to be rejected if it received with thanksgiving, as this sort of spiritual appetite can never be satisfied.
Authority in the Church comes from men, and while it does not preclude the wise counsel of women, this particular kind of authority can come only from men. A priest should not be a drunkard or quarrelsome or greedy and desirous of money. He should not be a recent convert and must be held in esteem.
In a marriage, the wife should be submissive to her husband. Similarly, all Christians should be subject to one another to care for their brethren. This does not necessarily mean that the strongest personality in a family is the father's. It is through the bearing of children that women are saved, though it is not necessary for women to bear children to be saved.
Paul reminds the men that Christ's death was a ransom for the multitudes, and that there is no limitation on who may be saved by a secret knowledge or ancestry. This does not mean that we may worship God however we please. Those who attend the Mass must do so in a respectful manner. We must not be ostentatious or skimpy in our attire or quarrelsome in demeanor there, of all places.
Women are instructed to learn and teach the faith to their children. They are not to have authority over men, though they are commended to prophesy in the assembly.
Paul instructs us to pray for the salvation of all men, including leaders and kings. There had been an error that said that not all could be saved, and perhaps this was the error that Paul was writing the letter to combat. We are to desire the salvation of all and pray for all. We should ask our brethren to do the same for us and likewise the saints to intercede on our behalf.
Even though Paul was familiar with the beliefs of Christians, he says that he had an ignorance of Christianity. The people that are causing trouble in Ephesus are not in a similar situation. They are or were in some sense believers, but have gone astray, and Paul says that they must be separated from the Church by excommunication, hopefully to see the error of their ways and rejoin the Church.
The letters to Timothy begin shortly after the end of Acts, with Paul's release from Rome in 62 AD. Paul writes a personal letter to Timothy, but it is evident from the language that it is an open letter.
In Ephesus, where Timothy was, there were people, at least two known to Paul, who were teaching a sort of legalistic Gnosticism. These people suggested reading the Bible through some sort of lens. Paul condemns this sort of interpretation of the Bible. These people focused more on the law, which was for the correction of those who are in error, rather than on love.
Timothy was a convert to Christianity, a product of a mixed marriage between a Jewish mother and a pagan Greek father, and a Christian of some note in Lystra by the time of Paul's second visit to that city. Timothy would have heard Paul's preaching that afflictions would be necessarry to enter the kingdom of God. In addition to the basic rules that Gentile Christians must follow, the prohibition on eating meat with blood, the prohibition on sexual immorality, and the prohibition on food sacrificed to idols, Timothy was circumcised to avoid a distracting confrontation with the Judaizers in the Church. Timothy was quite influential as Paul's envoy in Macedonia.
Titus was an early convert from a pagan background who went up to Jerusalem with Paul (possibly from Antioch). This background comes largely from the second chapter of Galatians.
This study of the Pastoral Epistles of Paul comprises the two epistles to Timothy, the epistle to Titus and also the epistle to Philemon, which is not considered part of the pastoral epistles. Paul had a marked ability to find and train men to as parts of a missionary network, and while these letters show the sort of care and relationship Paul had with his men, they were also meant to be read. Many of the details of Paul's life after the events in the book of Acts can be found here.
Some have questioned whether these letters are genuinely of Paul. There are some marked differences between these and Paul's other letters, particularly in vocabulary. The Church has always affirmed that these letters are of Paul, and the differences can be attributed in part due to the fact that these are personal letters, not letters intended for the community at large, and differing uses of a scribe, or amanuensis. The early church fathers, going back as far as the sub-apostolic age, one generation removed from Paul's, who knew the Greek of the time, believe them to be authentic.
We must know God's word if we are His people, but we must also have it in our hearts. This word is for all of us, not just the clergy. We must drill it into our children's hearts so that we can act on it rather than knowing the word but not acting on it. We must act with justice toward all in the Christian community, as we cannot lift out hands to God if there is injustice in the community.
Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah all show for us how heroic our leaders should be. Like them, we must continually labor to renew and reform the Church to God's will. There are those who are those who do not work to reform the Church, or even work against them, but we must not be fearful, as God will take care of His Church. We must work on and have patience. God is being patient for us, which He can afford to do, as God controls history.
These books, like all of the Bible, should be read not simplistically. There is an adult reality with realistic lessons for all of us and applications to our lives today. To the faithful, Ezra and Nehemiah show us many duties that we have to the Church today.
We must have faith.
There are many lessons to take from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The story is told in such a way as to mirror the Exodus and the settlement of Israel. This is a restoration of the people of God, and if the people are to serve as an example of God's great deeds, the people must be seen as a blessing and as a witness, and the people cannot be that unless they are a people apart. This necessarily means that this will not be an easy life, but rather will result in persecution.
If the people are to have right relationship with God, they must also exercise right worship. This worship requires being freed from bondage by God's salvation, accepting God's law in your heart, and having a way to be in God's presence. The priesthood is essential to this. Sacrifice and atonement for sin is an essential part of worship, as well. Erecting an altar was the first thing that Moses instructed the people to do when they entered the land. The people were also instructed in the law, which was important for all the people who were capable of understanding to know.
The Emmanuel principle is important, that is, it is important to make a place for God with us, as the temple and specifically the tabernacle. It is all the more immanent with Jesus Christ, God incarnate.
Israel gave a portion to the temple, but the high priest Eliashib gave space in the temple for the donations to Tobiah, who was forbidden to be in the assembly of God because he was an Ammonite. Nehemiah threw Tobiah's things out of the temple and likewise shut down the merchants who sold goods to the Jews on the Sabbath.
After the city is protected by the walls and the people and the city are blessed, Jerusalem must be repopulated to maintain a civilization to support the temple. Some volunteer to live there, but many are chosen by lottery.
After the people had heard the law, they confessed their sins and worshipped God. Ezra traces the history of God's people, from His mighty deliverance from Egypt through the presumptuous sins of the people to the establishment of the land of Israel. The people came into the land but turned away again and were sent into exile. God brought them back, and the people are now rededicating themselves to the God who has never wavered from the covenant that the people so often have abandoned.
After the completion of the wall, in the month of Tishrei, the people gather before the Water Gate to dedicate themselves as the people of God. It is around this time that the Festival of Booths occurred in the time of Moses, but the feast had fallen into disuse, as well as the day of atonement.
The people call for Ezra to bring the book of the law and read the law and pledge themselves to the Lord. Ezra raises the book, and praises the Lord and all the people fall and bless God. The Levites went into the crowd to help the people understand the word of God. When the people understood this law, they wept.
The famine in Israel was deep enough that farmers are going into debt and some are requiring extreme amounts of collateral to cover their debts. Nehemiah is so concerned that he demands that all debt collections stop and the payments are reversed.
As the building of the wall comes to a close, Sanballat, through his agents, tries to convince Nehemiah to discuss Nehemiah and Judah's role in the area, but Nehemiah saw that it was a trick to derail his work. Nehemiah goes to meet with Shemaiah, who was homebound, Shemaiah suggests that they go to the temple to discuss, but Nehemiah knows that they want to make it seem as though he is seeking sanctuary, and refuses.
The wall is finished, and a census is taken. Again, some who claim to be priests but whose lineage is unknown are excluded from the priestly functions until a priest can consult the Urim and Thummim.
Nehemiah came in to a dispirited land and brought about a seemingly unanimous decision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Even Jews as far away as Gibeon and Mizpah came to assist in the rebuilding, though some were more dedicated than others. Even what little some may do is made more difficult by a famine in the land.
Sanballat, a Samaritan, prepares to launch an attack on the Jews who are rebuilding the temple, but the plan is discovered. The rebuilding is interrupted, and Nehemiah sets up a patrol to protect the rebuilding process.
Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem and evaluates the work to be done but does not immediately tell anyone of his plans. When confronted about the rebuilding of the temple, Nehemiah tells his critics that God will restore the Jews to Jerusalem. It is when Nehemiah begins this rebuilding that Daniel's messianic prophecy of seventy weeks of years begins.
Nehemiah is known for his intercession, an important facet of leadership.
Nehemiah came to prominence as a leader of the Jews 13 years after Ezra's time. Powerful men had taken issue with Ezra rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, which had contributed to a decline of Ezra's influence. Nehemiah, cup bearer to Artaxerxes, pleads to the king to rebuild Jerusalem, since Judah's neighbors were exploiting the unprotected nature of the city. Artaxerxes agrees, perhaps believing that having a friendly leader in Judah would protect him from his enemies.
Ezra has a meeting with some of the leaders of the group returning to Israel where they discuss the plans for the return and take a tally of some of the gifts they are bringing with them. It is with this group that Ezra would later meet and discuss the fact that many of the people had returned married to people who were practicing a pagan worship. Ezra declared that these marriages with people who were actively worshiping foreign gods could not stand.
Ezra was a priestly scribe of some import in the Jewish community in exile who was moved to bring his people back to the law. He comes to Israel in the seventh year in the reign of Artaxerxes I, 60 years after the completion of the temple. The Persian empire makes special provisions for the Jewish faith and for Ezra in particular.
As God's people, the Jews are called to be consecrated and separated, not adulterated by people of other religions. As such, no foreign wives may be taken by the Jews, unless they change and are converted to Judaism.
Zec 4:6-10 tells Zerubbabel that he will restore the temple, but by God's power, not by his own. The people of the lands around Israel attempted to frustrate or co-opt this building of the temple for the with their own worship. This harassment would go on in some form for around 70 years.
Playing on the fears of the Persians, they were able to halt construction on occasion, but God shepherded the rebuilding of His temple and it was eventually completed.
Paramount importance was placed on creating an altar to God, as Moses had commanded of the original altar. This is appropriate, since sacrifice is the Old Testament way that sinful men can approach a holy God. These sacrifices are ways that men would pray that God would remember the covenant.
The book of Ezra continues with the story of the people separated (or set aside) for God, starting with a census. Some were not able to prove their lineage, and were given a separate designation. Professed priests who fell into this category were excluded as unclean until the Urim and Thummim could be consulted. These people came back to a dry, desolate land with high ideals and many gifts for the restoration of the land, but they would be called to a greater purity than many were prepared to undertake.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah mark the greatest reform of God's people in the Old Testament. God gave the law to Moses, a temple and kingdom to the Israelites, and prophets to proclaim that the people would be carried into captivity if they were not faithful. The people remained lukewarm, and were carried off to Babylon.
In the Babylonian captivity, we see the Israelites become the Jewish people, and they restore the land starting in 538 with the great decree of the Persian king Cyrus that the Jews were to return to Israel. God stirred Cyrus up to ask the Jews to rebuild the temple, which is something very unusual for the Persian Empire until that point.
Sheshbazzar, a Jewish prince, begins this return from exile, but after this, we do not see his name show up in the Bible. Zerubbabel continues the return.
Central to the incarnation is the fact that it is a great act of humbling God's self. The God of the universe exists outside of time and space, and knows the incarnation, the passion, and even the fall of Adam before creation. It is humbling in the extreme to know that we were created even knowing the fall would come.
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, united in something called a hypostatic union. Some have called into doubt just how much He knew about His divinity at different points in His life on Earth, but it is clear that Jesus knew from earliest times that He is God. He knew that He should be about His father's business in the temple, He proclaimed Himself as the Son of God, not as an adopted sonship, but as a natural son.
His opponents used the very same statements to condemn Him, stating that He had called Himself God, and when they gave Him an opportunity to clarify what He meant, Jesus did not deny that He is God. Heresies arose about this doctrine from both sides, with some like the Arians denying Christ's divinity, and the Docetists attacking His humanity. The Church has made statements several times refuting these errors.
Melchizedek is an impressive priest. He blesses Abraham, which implies that even father Abraham is inferior to him. This is an order that would be described as hieros, rather than the usual term used in the New Testament, presbuteros, and coms not by descent from Levi, but is an order that allows sacrifice to be offered from the rising of the sun to its setting.
All of the Bible leads to the conclusion that God will come to be with us, but sin separates us from God. Sometimes we are tempted to downplay our sin, but that downplays God's holiness. We see God's holiness overpower many people in the Bible.
We also see that the Messiah is prophesied to have a priestly role, who will finally end sin by sacrifice of Himself, and that He would come in what we call now the first century AD. The Messiah, however, need not be a Levitical priest, but as we know, is a priest forever of the order of Melchizedek.
We can be confident that God will save us if we call on His name, but salvation is a process, and is not a magical proclamation that assures us Heaven no matter how wicked we are in this life. We must rejoice in our hope and in our sufferings, and know that to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace, we are rewarded in the next life.
Throughout all of biblical history, God has rewarded those who hope in Him. There are those who will deny the action of God in their lives, even as the Hebrews ignored the explicit miracles they saw in the times of the Exodus, but those who have a fear of the Lord or who have an expectation the Lord's grace in the world are praised in the Bible.
In 2 Sam 7, David seeks to make a house for the Lord, but God declares that He will establish a house for Israel, a promise fulfilled in Christ.
Isaiah 7-12 concerns a prophecy to King Ahaz. A virgin or young woman will bear a son, and call him Immanuel, or God with us. This may have been a double prophecy, with multiple meanings, but it is clear that by the time of the translation of the Septuagint, the woman was considered to be a virgin. This is a promised heir to the throne of David.
On Jacob's deathbed, he declares that Judah is the tribe from which a king will come. Similarly, Balaam prophesies that a king would come out of Jacob. Jer 31:31 prophesies a new covenant, and Isaiah prophesies a suffering servant whose life points to Christ. There are several covenants, those of creation, conscience, Noah, Abraham, the law, David, and the new covenant of Christ, each building on the other.
God has been willing to come to man and be intimately with us, as the word immanuel, God with us, implies, but the priesthood is instituted to keep us from transgressing, by holding us to the service of God, and acting as a buffer between man and the holy things.
God promises to Abraham that through him, all the nations will bless themselves. God is so involved with man that He will even send an angel to wrestle with man, as Jacob does. We are told to not be unclean, and God will welcome us.
Through this time, we can see many Christophanies in the Old Testament: Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, his chosen son, Melchizedek, the priest who offers sacrifice of bread and wine, the 3000 who died at the giving of the law prefiguring the 3000 saved at Pentecost.
It is through the promises of the Old Testament that the love of God, which will be fulfilled in the New Testament, is clear.
Here begins a sweeping overview of salvation history.
God created man because of love. God wants a relation with man, and man gropes after God. Prov 8:17 says that those who seek God diligently find Him, and Hebrews says something very similar. Sin clouds our minds, but even in Genesis 3, God promises an end to this state. In the very next chapter, the sin of eating the fruit has become murder.
From the Rochester NY Chesterton Society's 8th Annual Conference, Dale Ahlquist (President, American Chesterton Society) talks about the end of the world and how it factors into the world that God has created, a world of justice and peace, and a world that will undergo a revolution to conform it to God's plan. We must use our free will to be a part of this plan. Whether or not you agree with every point touched on here, you will find this talk timely, provocative, and stimulating.
Visit the Rochester NY Chesterton Society's website at www.rochesterton.com.
See more from the American Chesterton Society at www.chesterton.org.
In this recording from the 2011 Rochester NY Chesterton Conference, Hilaire Belloc (played by Kevin O'Brien) takes a sweeping overview of Christian history with a look at what he conceptualized as the five major heresies.
Arianism, one of the earliest great heresies, claims that Jesus was not God but a creature. St. Athanasius and some military victories dealt a blow to the heresy, but so did the rise of Islam.
Mohammedanism began as a heresy, as an oversimplified version of Catholicism, which denied the incarnation. It grew because of its promise of freedom from slavery and usury, and as recently as the 17th century, the Ottoman empire was trying to overrun Vienna.
Albigensianism is a heresy that claims that evil is as much a force as good, that all matter is of evil, and therefore that all matter and anything pleasurable must be eschewed.
Protestantism began as a reaction to correct abuses of the Church, but quickly added in ideas of John Calvin, who claimed that there was evil as part of the divine nature. This allowed people to accept evil in the world as part of divine will.
Modernism is a heresy that denies the supernatural and attacks truth, beauty and goodness. The result of this is the rise of slavery in other forms, as well as cruelty.
While the way in which these ideas are presented may at points seem dated (Belloc died in 1953), they remain thought-provoking. And more importantly, Kevin O'Brien's masterful performance of Belloc and his comments that follow illustrate the great potential of ''evangelization through drama,'' the mission of O'Brien's Theater of the Word.
The Church can be divided into three parts: the Church Militant on Earth, the Church Triumphant in Heaven, and the Church Suffering in Purgatory. All parts of the Church are ceaselessly praying for each other, and it is through this prayer that God has chosen to place the vitality of the Church.
Through the saving power of Jesus Christ, death has been turned from a curse into a blessing. It is important to emphasize that this is indeed a blessing and not simply a lack of curse. In Christ, we will have communion with all others who are in Christ. We must therefore pray for our brethren and pray for those who are in Purgatory. Never fear to pray for a lost cause, as no prayer is ever wasted. Likewise, we must share the gifts that God has given us one with another, for what charity we give benefits the whole Church, and what sin we commit harms the whole Church.
The majority of the church fathers are of the opinion that more people, indeed more people claiming to be Christian, will be damned than saved. There is a minority who hold an opposing opinion. As overly-optimistic visions of Hell are not particularly helpful, so too are hellfire speeches which luridly describe the punishments of Hell are not useful. Prayer, however, is never wasted.
There was a theory expounded by Origen, among others, that all would be saved, in some theories extending even to the Devil. While the Church has never officially ruled out the more moderate versions of this theory, the clear language of the Bible is very difficult to square with this belief.
Still, we do not know what God knows, and there is no reason not to pray that we might have hope for salvation for any particular soul, or for souls in general.
Hell is not a pleasant subject, and some religions try to explain it away or ignore it entirely. How could a loving God commit any of his creation to unquenchable fire? The answer is that we choose it ourselves.
The damned have physical bodies, because the body helped commit the sins that damned the soul, so should the body participate in the punishment. Thus, we must take care to instruct our bodies to be virtuous, not corrupted by sin.
God cannot be seen as He is unless He allows Himself to be seen, which is termed the beatific vision. This is an unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16), but we expect to see face to face in Heaven (1 Cor 13:12, Ps 17:15).
The Catechism also tells us that we will reign in heaven, though obviously not over God, and this implies that Heaven is not a static place. Rev 22, even taken literally, tells us that Heaven will be an immense place, a place that cannot be on Earth as it is, and Rev 21 tells us that it will be a new place with no more sadness. Paul, in Rom 8, tells us that we are groaning to be part of this new creation. Jesus tells us that we must lay up treasure in Heaven. We also know that there will be gender in Heaven, as we are repeatedly told that there will be people of both specific sexes there.
Despite the physicality of Heaven, we cannot expect carnality or a fleshliness there. 1 Cor 13:12 tells us that we will be face to face with God, and there cannot be any attachment to anything else when we are. Rev 22 tells us that we will have His name inscribed on our foreheads, such will be the communion with the Trinity in Heaven.
Section 1024f of the Catechism tells us that there will be many in Heaven, but it will not be to lose our identity to a corporate body. This does not means that there is no corporate body of the Church Triumphant, as Heaven is the community of all who are perfectly united in Christ, and Jn 15 speaks of us all as branches of Him, the true vine.
Benedict XII tells us that those who have died and have been purified or are not in need of purification are in Heaven, even before the resurrection. This is a place of surpassing beauty and where we will be in a union of love with God without any mediation.
We must still be resurrected on the last day, since we were created to be a union of body and spirit, but Heaven is still a timeless part of our progress into our eternal reward. We know that there is some bodily component to Heaven, as some there, such as Moses and Mary, were assumed bodily into Heaven. The body there, however, will be different from our bodies here.
Rev 21:27 says that nothing unclean shall enter Heaven, which is why it is necessary that there be a place where we are purified before we enter Heaven. 2 Maccabees explains that there must be a place, as there would be no sense in offering prayers for the dead otherwise. The Catechism, in section 1030ff, explains much about the doctrine of Purgatory. In Matt 12:31f, Jesus states that some things may be forgiven in the age to come, again providing evidence of forgiveness in the next life. Again, in Matt 5:23-26 and 18:18-35, Jesus tells us that we will never get out of our debt of sin until we have paid the last penny, implying that this place is not Hell, which no one will ever leave.
Aquinas tells us that the purgatorial fire is a purifying, rather than afflictive fire. Mortal sin deprives us of communion with God, and this deprivation is eternal punishment in Hell. The suffering in Purgatory, on the other hand, is that of yearning for God, and it is not God's vengeance, and the Church has always commended almsgiving and prayers for those who are in Purgatory.
The Limbo of the unbaptized infants is something that scholars and saints have had myriad opinions on, with a variety of beliefs such as (1) unbaptized infants go to Hell, (2) that the infants go to Hell, but do not have the torments of Hell, (3) that they live on the edge of Heaven, a sort of limbo, or (4) that God will save unbaptized infants, and we should trust them to God's grace. It is not known for certain what the whole truth is, but even those who postulated Limbo believe that parents may save their children by desiring baptism for them.
Even from Old Testament times, there have been writings of an intermediary place between Heaven and Earth, such as Wisdom 3, Psalms 6:5, 88:12, 94:17, Job 10:21f, Job 14:21 and these are confirmed by the saints, like St. Irenaeus. We know that this place has no knowledge of the world, but it is clear from I Sam 2:6, Job 26:6 and Psalms 86:13, 139:8 that God is still present in this place, and from Christ's statement that God is the God of the living, not of the dead.
One of these intermediary places is often called hell, taken from the Old English word for the place of the dead, but it is not the Hell of damnation. We know from scripture that Christ rose from the dead, which indicates that He had descended as savior and Christus Victor to the nether world to proclaim the Gospel to the just imprisoned there (see Jn 5:25, 1 Pet 3:18-20 and 1 Pet 4:6 as well as Sections 632f of the Catechism).
This harrowing takes place in time, even though it may seem to us as though it takes place in an instant and after this, Christ holds the keys of death and Hades. Jesus came to Earth, took on the flesh of one of His creation, like us, died like we do, and then, through rising, saves us (see also Heb 2:14-18).
Immediately upon separation from our bodies in death, we undergo our own particular judgment, and the judgment and pronouncement of the sentence are given. The actual execution of the sentence occurs later at the Final Judgment when Christ comes again. Daniel 12 and John 5 give us evidence for this. We will know at the particular judgment the justness of the sentence, but not until the final judgement will we see the whole of God's plan.
Wisdom tells us that ungodly people belong to death, but as Philippians 1 says, for the Christian, to live is Christ and death is gain. We would do well to remember that death, is the wages of sin, and that God's plan was to have man be immortal as God is. Death, however, has been transformed into a blessing by Christ. The saints also have much to say about the way to approach death.
God promises to punish Molech, the god of the Ammonites, and those who worship it, but the Ammonites will be restored afterward, as they are relatives of the Israelites, descended from Lot. God will also punish the Edomites, who had a marauding culture, but their children and widows He will keep alive. Other nations also have judgments against them.
Babylon was used by God to exact judgment on Israel, but now that the judgment has been exacted, and the nations became drunk on the things that came from Babylon (which would be repeated in Revelation, chapters 17 and 18), and since Babylon does not have any good left in it, God will destroy it.
Jeremiah tells Seraiah to deliver a message that he had written down some time before, a message that contains all the things that would befall Babylon, and then to throw it into the Euphrates, to sink as Babylon would sink.
The Book of Jeremiah reminds us that we must be careful to listen to what God is saying, and to be prepared to act on it.
After God promises to punish Egypt, he promises to punish the Philistines, whose people were very advanced, possessing the ability to forge iron. God will punish them for the taking of the Ark of the Covenant, many, many years ago. Moab will also be punished for pride. In all of these cases, the true God is attacking the false gods. It is worthy of note that the language here echoes Numbers 21:27ff.
The last few chapters of Jeremiah are rich in wordplay and in detail, and in some ways are like an entirely different book. There are many pronouncements made against Egypt, which has often been used to mean the world at large, but pride of worldly power is singled out for particular condemnation.
The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, and he tells those who escaped to Egypt that Nebuchadnezzar will conquer them and they will not come back. Those who have worshiped false gods, and who have taken wives who brought in worship of false gods, like the goddess Astarte, known as the queen of Heaven, have left God. King Hophra of Egypt was already having trouble before Nebuchadnezzar came against him, and he would indeed fall a little while later.
Some use criticism of this false god to impugn veneration of Mary, the mother of God. Certainly, we must make absolutely sure that the honor, which is never to be worship, given to the saints is infinitely lower than the proper worship of God. Worship of any creature would be a sin. We do, however, have the ability to ask any living person to pray for us, and similarly, we may ask those who are in Heaven to do the same for us.
Nothing more is said of Jeremiah at this point, but there is more to come in the book, including the letter of Jeremiah to Baruch.
God saw Judah falling away and decided to give Judah a test, which Judah failed, and thus He chastised them. How do you respond to the challenges that God gives to you?
Jeremiah is cared for in Babylon, and Gedaliah is left as governor of Judah, since he did not go with the rebellion, and since he was not taken to Babylon. A marauder named Ishmael plots to kill Gedaliah, and since Gedaliah won't take efforts to stop him, Ishmael does kill him and all those who were with him. A while later, eighty other pilgrims come to give offerings in the temple, and Ishmael kills all of them, except for some who gave up their hiding places. Ishmael takes captives and flees toward the Ammonites, but Johanan recovers all the captives.
Johanan then wants to go into Egypt and seeks Jeremiah's approval, and Jeremiah prays to God for guidance. God tells him not to go, but Johanan seems to have already made up his mind and goes into Egypt anyway.
Some in the military hear the words of Jeremiah, and they plot to silence Jeremiah. King Zedekiah, like Pontius Pilate later, lets them do what they will. They put Jeremiah into a cistern and left him to die until Ebed-melech, a eunuch, comes to the defense of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is rescued, and Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to tell him the truth, and Jeremiah tells him to surrender. Zedekiah is afraid to do that.
There is a breach in the city walls, and the city falls. The king and his men sneak out, but they are caught. Jerusalem is destroyed. All the people are carried off to Babylon except the poorest of the poor. Ebed-melech will be saved from his enemies.
The Babylonians approach Israel, and the people prepare for the attack. Extrabiblical accounts of this time exist in the Lachish Letters.
At this time, some people make a sacred covenant to free their slaves, possibly as a cost-cutting measure, but when the impending army seems to be less of a threat, these people break their sacred covenant and take back their slaves.
Jeremiah wrote down all the words that God had told him, and ordered Baruch to read them to those assembled in the temple. Jehoiakim burns the scroll containing those words. After this, the king seeks out Jeremiah and asks him what will happen and what ca be done at this point. Jeremiah tells him that there is nothing that can be done, and Babylon will capture Judah.
God declares again that He will restore both Israel and Judah, and declares that the king will be from their own, as opposed to being ruled from outside, and God will bring him near, as opposed to him daring to approach God. Even Samaria will come back to Zion.
Jeremiah prophesies consolation for God's people after the exile, even the priests whom he has often prophesied hardship. The people will mourn for what has happened, and there is a prophecy about the slaughter of the innocents by Herod.
Jeremiah also prophesies that there will be a new covenant, one based on forgiveness, that God will usher in.
Hananiah proclaims that Babylon will be defeated within two years and the things that they ave stolen from the temple will be restored. Jeremiah says that this is not what the true prophets have prophesied about before, and that the people should not believe Hananiah's words until they come true. Hananiah would die shortly thereafter.
Jeremiah tells the people not to wait to start families and prepare for their return, as the return will not come quickly. Jeremiah also talks about the bleak future for the false prophets and their families during those years.
Jeremiah prophesies in the Temple that the Temple will be sacked, and the priests and false prophets want to kill Jeremiah for it, but the people are persuaded that if they do kill Jeremiah, and he is a prophet, they will have innocent blood on their hands. There is precedent among the prophets for this in Micah and a counterexample in Uriah.
Jeremiah puts a yoke on his neck to warn the people of the subjugation Judah will experience, and to tell the envoys of Judah's neighbors that they must all submit to Babylon or die. The vessels of the Temple, which the false prophets are predicting will come back, are in fact, gone until God restores them.
Jeremiah pronounces judgment on Jehoiachin and criticizes all the kings but Josiah. He also refers to the entire people returning to Israel, as well as a righteous branch of David who will rule there. This is a messianic prophecy, and it refers to Jesus. Jeremiah goes after the false prophets as well.
Jeremiah is shown a basket of figs, some good and some bad. These figs are like the people of Israel, and God will restore them to the land. The bad people, however, will be treated like bad figs by God.
Jeremiah sees a potter whose clay has not turned out the way he wanted to, and God uses this to explain his actions. God will rework Israel into a different type of vessel if Israel will change its path, which Paul would echo in 2 Timothy 2:20-21. This does not match what the priests and false prophets were saying at the time, but those people, both then and now are not guaranteed to proclaim what is in the Bible and the catechism. Jeremiah shatters a flask to emphasize the analogy.
Jeremiah is placed in stocks by Pashur son of Immer, and the people seek to kill Jeremiah, for prophesying things like Israel will be captured, but people will die unless they surrender. Even Jeremiah's own family is against him, and Jeremiah is despairing more than at any other point in the Bible.
At this point, the timeline is interrupted and goes back to the reign of Josiah.
Jeremiah is distressed by the fact that the people are against him, and has no wife to comfort him in his distress, since children would not be safe in this time. Jeremiah prophesies that if Jerusalem keeps the Sabbath, kings will rule in Jerusalem and people will come bearing offerings, but if they do not keep the Sabbath, the city will be consumed by fire.
God tells the people of Israel and the surrounding nations that they will be conquered, but Israel will be restored, as well as any nation that will worship God as other nations have convinced Israel to worship Baal. Any nation that does not do this will be destroyed.
There is an extended section of visions told in a parabolic form next. Jeremiah is told to bury a waistcloth, a piece of intimate apparel, and then to dig it up, finding it spoiled. This is analagous to Israel, who was designed to be intimate to God, who now has become spoiled. God also likens the people to clay pots filled with wine, as God will fill the priests, prophets and kings with drunkenness, and he will dash the pots together. Jeremiah then begins a long section of comparisons of what will happen to Israel, it will weep when the Lord's flock are taken into exile, as well as the king and the queen mother, who will be brought low, the nation will be raped, and they will be like chaff.
Jeremiah asks that God might have mercy, since He is in their midst in the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. God says that He will not. Jeremiah also protests that the people are not listening to him but rather the false prophets who are preaching prosperity. Contrary to what they are saying, the drought and famine will come.
Jeremiah embraces the book of the law that was discovered, the book of Deuteronomy. Meredith Klein, in ''The Treaty of the Great King'', says that Deuteronomy follows a well-defined formula of a Hittite treaty from a subject to his ruler. These treaties go over the history of the relationship, the conditions of the treaty, and the consequences of breaking it. (Some of these curses can be found in Deuteronomy 27).
Jeremiah takes the people to task for failing to meet that covenant, and his kinsmen turn on Jeremiah. It can be confusing at times to read as it is unclear if it is Jeremiah or God speaking, and some sections of things to come are described as having happened already, as God's assurance that they will happen is every bit as real as having been completed already. Even though God will punish the people for their infidelity, God promises that He will have compassion on them.
The Lord tells His people that if they circumcise their hearts as Moses told them to do in Deuteronomy 10:16, they will be able to return to the land. Jeremiah protests to the Lord that He is deceving the people: we know from 2 Thessalonians that God can allow the people to be deceived.
The people had been led astray by the priests (the tradition of being led astray by those claiming religious authority continues in some quarters down until today), but they would have to be reconciled to God by themselves.
God recalls when Israel came into the land out of Egypt and how He dealt harshly with those who would dare to touch His people, the first fruits of the harvest. Unfortunately, Israel became dissolute. The people carried on the religious ceremonies despite God not being in the ceremonies, and the people didn't even ask where God was.
The Israelites did not seek refuge in God when the nation was threatened; they sought protection from Egypt, who liked to exact a terrible price from their beneficiaries later. Jeremiah says that Israel's unfaithfulness is as bad as a prostitute's. Even the faithless Samaritans were not as guilty as Israel, who should have known better.
Josiah, at age 8, came to the throne, and showed signs of clear piety by his teens. During the time of his reign, there was a lack of competing power in the area, giving Josiah room to make needed reforms.
Josiah cleansed the temple, and the priests discovered the book of the law there, which had been neglected. Josiah elevated the Passover to a great festival, and Huldah prophesies that those who participated in these reforms would die before seeing the judgment on Judah.
Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, was born of a well-to-do priestly family around 646 BC. Unlike even priests and nazirites, he was forbidden to marry or even to be at celebrations.
Jeremiah's opponents plot his demise and ultimately, King Zedekiah declares that he will not oppose killing Jeremiah. After the Babylonians conquer Israel, the Babylonians offer to take Jeremiah back to Babylon because he said not to oppose them, but Jeremiah did not accept.
Jeremiah is called to prophecy when he was preparing for the priesthood around age 20, in the reign of King Josiah, the great reformer. Jeremiah is reluctant and protests that he does not know how to speak, but God tells him that He watches over His words, but does not hide from Jeremiah that this will take many years, which will turn out to be forty years. Under Josiah, Jeremiah is somewhat protected, but ultimately, the Babylonians capture Judah, and Jeremiah joins his kinsmen in captivity.
The Northern tribes of Israel had had a line of non-Davidic kings and had created two false sanctuaries in Bethel and Dan.
After Jesus appears to the apostles, they tell Thomas, who had been apart from them following the crucifixion, that they have seen Jesus, but Thomas, cynical, does not believe. Jesus then appears to the apostles again with Thomas, who does believe is very deeply moved. Jesus tells Thomas that he has believed because he has seen, but those who have not seen but still believe (those reading the gospel) are blessed.
The last chapter, an epilogue, describes few disciples going to fish at a later time. They catch nothing, but Jesus appears on the beach and tells them to cast their net on the other side. The disciples receive a large catch of fish, and Jesus asks them to share it with Him. Jesus has brought some bread and fish, which echoes the feeding for the multitude and the Eucharist.
Jesus then asks three times if Peter loves Him. Three times Peter has denied Jesus, and now three times he declares he loves Him. Each time, Jesus tells Peter to care for Jesus's flock. Jesus also makes reference to how Peter will die.
The gospel ends with a postscript to the 21st chapter that appears to have been written by the scribe.
Mary Magdalene visits the tomb of Jesus with some others, saying, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." John and Peter go to visit the tomb, and John sees the state of the burial cloths and believes.
Mary sees two angels in the tomb, and Jesus reveals Himself to Mary, much like He reveals Himself to the apostles on the road to Emmaus. Jesus tells Mary not to hold onto Him, sending her to tell the apostles, whom He calls His brothers even as he has just risen from the dead. Jesus then visits the apostles, greets them with His peace, and with the Holy Spirit, gives them a commission to absolve people's sins.
Peter comes to the palace where Jesus is being tried, and denies that he knows Him three times, as Christ prophesied. Christ is brought to Pilate, who finds no guilt. Pilate tries to send Jesus back to be punished by the Jews, but they refuse, as there is a law preventing them from executing Him, but they must see Jesus executed for declaring Himself the Son of God. The people lodge a complaint that Jesus declared Himself to be a king, which forces Pilate to act.
Pilate offers to release Jesus, giving the crowd a choice between Him and Barabbas, a notorious bandit. The crowd prefers to release Barabbas, but Pilate has Jesus flogged, thinking that that would satisfy the crowd.
It does not, and Jesus is crucified. Jesus carries His own cross to His execution, and He dies between two criminals. The death comes quickly, and He is quickly prepared for burial, as the Sabbath is approaching. Meanwhile, men divide His garments and cast lots for His tunic, which was seamless, much like that of the High Priest.
Jesus and His disciples go into the Kidron Valley to the garden of Gethsemane, where they are met with a large number of soldiers. Jesus confronts the soldiers, finds out that they are looking for Jesus, and declares "I am," echoing the the fact that He is God.
The soldiers come to take Jesus away and He tells them to let the disciples go. This was to fulfill what Jesus said in John 17, showing that John gives Jesus' words the same weight as the Old Testament prophets.
Peter strikes a soldier on the ear, but Jesus tells him to but his sword back, healing the man.
Jesus is taken to Annas, but does not testify on his behalf, simply stating that He had been preaching publicly, and that if they want to know His teaching, they need only summon witnesses. Jesus is then taken to Caiaphas, who finds Him guilty of blasphemy and sends Jesus to Pilate for trial based on treason or sedition.
Jesus repeats his final command: love. Through a long explanation, Jesus declares His love for His disciples and explains that He must go away, but that He will return. Once more, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come, proceeding through the Son. Jesus also explains that some in the world will try to hurt the disciples. After this, He prays to His Father that we would be preserved from a host of threats and from the evil one.
Jesus calls himself the true vine, which calls to mind the imagery of Psalm 80[79], and He states that His Father is the vinedresser, who will prune away the branches that do not bear fruit. Thus, we must accept and grow the fruit that God is giving us. If we do not take the discipline that God requires of us and prove that we are His disciples, we will be eating and drinking judgment on ourselves in the Eucharist.
Jesus speaks to each of us in the whole of the Last Supper, saying that He wants to love you specifically and that He wants you in particular to be full of His joy.
At the Passover feast, Judas is already preparing to betray Jesus. Jesus takes off His outer robe and washes the feet of His disciples. Such washing by the master is unheard of in the tradition of ritual washing.
Even knowing the betrayal, and the prophecy from Psalm 41 that Jesus will be betrayed by an intimate friend, Jesus is hurt by the knowledge of Judas' sin. Jesus gives Judas the morsel, a piece of honor at the Passover feast, asking Judas to do what he will do.
Judas leaves, and Jesus tells them that He is now glorified, but that the apostles cannot follow where He is going. Jesus then gives a new commandment, that they love one another as He has loved them. Peter protests that He wants to follow Him, and Jesus prophesies that Peter will betray Him that very night.
Several apostles have objections or comments now, and Jesus uses these as an opportunity to explain His relationship with the Father and promise the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus also tells the other Judas that those who love Him keep His commandments, reinforcing a theme that John has developed in his gospel.
Jesus goes to Bethany, which becomes His base of operations, and there, Martha anoints His feet with costly oil. Jesus lets her do it, saying that she is preparing His body for burial. Judas thinks that the money should have been given to the poor, and plans to betray Jesus.
Jesus then enters Jerusalem on an ass, like a peaceful king. Jesus, who had said all along that His time had not yet come, declares that His time has now come. Jesus is troubled by the coming trauma of taking on the sins of humanity.
Some Jews come to ask Jesus to plainly declare Himself the Christ, but He tells them what He already said, but they take up stones because Jesus makes Himself out to be God. Jesus tells them that they do the same thing when they use the title of God for their religious.
Jesus then hears that Lazarus has died. He stays for two more days and then returns Judea to Lazarus' home. Thomas cynically suggests that they will be going to their deaths by returning to Judea, as well.
When Jesus visits the family and sees Lazarus' tomb, He starts to cry, overcome with emotion despite the knowledge that He will raise Lazarus soon. Jesus then tells the people to take away the stone, cries out with a loud voice, and raises Lazarus, who had been dead for four days.
Hearing of this, the Pharisees seek to kill Jesus.
Jesus tells the parable of the Good Shepherd, which recalls Zechariah 11, Ezekiel 34, and Malachi 2. A father must feed his children first, and likewise the priests must tend their flocks before themselves.
Jesus uses an example of sheep who come to the shepherd's name to explain Himself. He is the gate for the sheep, and while a hireling would abandon his flock, the good shepherd will not. Jesus will put his life down voluntarily to save His flock, and He will pick it up again. This is something that only God can do, and those who hear Him say it understand the implications of such statements.
Jesus and the authorities get into a heated argument. Jesus tells them that He knows the will of the Father, and that the authorities do not. Jesus then says that Abraham saw His day, and that before Abraham was, I am, referring to the name of God. The authorities then take up stones against Jesus, but He escapes.
Jesus then heals a man born blind, but the Pharisees question the man, who tells them that Jesus did it on the Sabbath, and defends Jesus. The Pharisees throw the man out, who goes and becomes a disciple of Jesus, who tells him that He is the Son of Man.
John 8 begins with the narrative of the woman caught in adultery. This section, while an authentic eyewitness account of the Gospel, was probably not written by John, since early manuscripts attached it to different gospels or different parts of John, but it was too important to be left out of the Gospel altogether.
Jesus proclaims that He is the Light of the world. Darkness is used to denote that which is not of God throughout the Bible. Psalms 27, 36, 119, Numbers 6, and Isaiah 49 correlate light with God and God's gift of life. The Pharisees object that Jesus has not confirmed His testimony by another witness, a legal procedure. Jesus states that His testimony is confirmed even if He states it Himself, since He does not judge, but rather the Father.
Jesus then speaks of His death, but the Pharisees do not understand. Jesus tells them that they will understand when He is lifted up, which refers to His crucifixion.
Jesus says that He is the bread which has come down from Heaven, that we must physically eat His body to have eternal life, and that He will raise those who believe on the last day, and this upsets many of his followers. Jesus states these things clearly and without equivocation and makes no attempt to offer a more crowd-pleasing teaching.
John next tells of Jesus teaching at the Fesival of Booths, where Jesus states that His teaching comes from God, not from any man, which hearkens back to Jeremiah 31:31ff, where God says that His new covenant will no longer need to be taught by men, since God will forgive them. In this, the New Testament and forgivness are bound up with teaching.
Jesus is provoking the religious with His statements; if the statements are true, we must worship Him, if they be false, His blasphemy would carry the punishment of death. Whatever His followers knew, His detractors understood this.
A number of people listen to Jesus preach for a day, and by the end, they are hungry. Jesus finds a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. With this, five thousand are fed, and the scraps from the loaves (and from no other food) fill up twelve baskets. This event is important enough to be mentioned in all four gospels.
The people there think Jesus to be the prophet mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:15, and want to make Him their king, but Jesus withdraws. Some of the people meet up with Jesus and ask Him about more miracles of bread. Jesus tells them that for God, providing them with food is nothing compared with providing them with what they really need, the bread of life, which Jesus provides for us in the Eucharist.
Jesus heals a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years. The man takes up his mat and is accused for taking up his mat on the Sabbath, ignoring the great feat of healing that just took place. When pressed on this point, Jesus declares that He is working on the sabbath because His father is working. This stirs up some people because while there was a Jewish tradition of calling God our father, calling Him one's own father means that the speaker is either blaspheming or the begotten son of God.
Jesus, who brought up the point, does not back down, but rather points out His authority comes from the father, who has given all judgment to the son. Jesus also states that judgment will be based on whether we do
good or evil.
Jesus returns to Galilee after the arrest of John, but even at that time, the disciples of Jesus were baptising more people than John the Baptist. Even still, there is no evidence that any baptisms were sacramental baptisms before Pentecost. As He travels through Samaria, and runs into a woman who is drawing water at high noon, trying to avoid the others in the community. Jesus baits the woman into asking Him about the "living water" that he can give her. He explains that this water will become a spring and anyone who drinks of it will never be thirsty again. If we have truly received this living water, this should be our experience as well, though it may be that we have only allowed it to be a trickle in us.
Jesus' disciples come back and tell Him to eat something, but He tells them that His food is doing the will of God, and that it is important to begin the harvest when some are now ripe. Jesus then goes into Galilee, where He is initially well-received. John places this next to Jesus' statement that a prophet is not welcome in his own country, implying that Jesus' country was in Jerusalem.
A man asks Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus challenges him, saying that men only believe if they see signs. The man is not intimidated, but continues in parental concern. Jesus heals his son.
John identifies several Passovers that span the length of Christ's ministry, and the first Passover that is identified is the one when Jesus cleanses the temple. Since the synoptic gospels say that this happened on the last week before Jesus' death, this raises the very real possibility that Christ cleansed it more than once.
Jerusalem was packed during the days leading up the Passover, and to avoid having travelers driving livestock through the town, the livestock trade was brought into the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. The business of the Passover had taken over, which was a pragmatic reaction to the logistics of managing the Passover sacrifice. So Jesus drives the merchants out of the temple, fulfilling the prophecy in Psalm 69.
Nicodemus comes to see Jesus, who tells him that he needs to be born again. This confuses Nicodemus, since conversion was not something that he expected.
John's gospel takes the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at length, because John the Evangelist was a disciple of John the Baptist, and then discusses several signs. A sign is something that signifies something else, in this case, pointing to the spiritual reality that we might not otherwise notice.
The first sign is the Wedding Feast at Cana. The wine runs out at a wedding feast, and Mary (never called by name in John's gospel) asks him to do something. Jesus asks what the situation had to do with Jesus and Mary, but still changes water into wine, signifying the importance of a wedding and thus blessing the ceremony. Doing this, we know that he is able to change reality. He can alter reality and he isn't just changing perception.
Jesus was present at the creation, and all created things were created through Him. In that beginning, the Son was in dynamic relationship with the Father. John talks in the introduction about logos (the Word), life and light, which can be used, along with love, as a mnemonic of John's themes for English speakers. John the Evangelist then takes time to talk about John the Baptist. The Jewish establishment came to ask John who he was shortly after he baptised Jesus, and John tells them that he is the voice of one crying in the wilderness as foretold in Isaiah. John proclaims Jesus the Son of God, and shortly thereafter, disciples begin to follow Him.
The Church recognizes four apostolic witnesses to the Gospel. Three of them are known as synoptic, that is, they recount the same events. The Gospel according to John, however, recounts many events that do not appear in the other three. John states that he is writing so that we may believe, but it seems that this was written to Christians, so that they might truly believe in a time when the Jewish and Christian groups were diverging. Irenaeus, who was the disciple of one of John's disciples, states that this was written by John.
John's gospel begins by recounting Jesus' signs and quickly leads to His passion, which begins the most significant aspect of the Gospel.
Paul began Romans talking about how many gifts the Roman church had. At the end, Paul makes reference to some times that he has had to remind them. The final doxology talks about the obedience of faith echoes the identical phrase at the start. Paul also tells them that he intends to make the Gentiles a priestly offering to God. Here he does not use the term for the governing priest (presbyter), but rather the Greek term for priest (hieros). The Greek term was not used for the office of priest, since that title was reserved for Christ alone.
Paul then talks about his plans to visit Rome, but Paul would be arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned. He would come to Rome in chains. The letter ends with a series of greetings, quite often to people in lay ministry, but Paul also notes that you are to avoid those who cause dissent against what you have been taught.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.
Paul continues that those of us who are strong must "bear with the failings of the weak" rather than pleasing ourselves. It is in this sense that we should try to live in harmony with our neighbors--not a false harmony of placation, but truly tying to build him up in faith. A Jewish Christian, for example, may opt to keep some of the Old Testament observances, and a Gentile should not try to dissuade him from doing that. Likewise, a Gentile will not be bound by the old precepts, and through that, show God's mercy. We must do everything we can to confirm the faith of our neighbors.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
We are to welcome those weak in faith, and by the same token, we are not to allow those less afflicted with scrupulosity to set the standards. God has welcomed them both, and it is not our place to pass judgment. We will all stand in judgment before God, and we should leave Him that task. This does not mean that we cannot in charity diplomatically object to errors in the essential things of religion.
Even though we are to provide allowances for opinions, we are not to give those who hold stricter rules for themselves reason to stumble. Doing so can cause not only the man to stumble, but has in some cases gone as far as causing schism. It is not right do do anything that would cause your brother to stumble.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
We are to be subject to governing authorities, because they get their authority from God. Even while Rome treated the Jews and the Christians harshly, Rome's infrastructure is what allowed Christianity to flourish. Paul knows that there is no need of insurrection, since God will provide for His people what they need. These governing authorities have ben allowed to exist by God, therefore, he who resists them resists what God has appointed.
This does not mean that these rulers are good, or that there can be no moral resistance. What this does mean that we cannot be advocates of general anarchy or impulsive rebellion. Both in Rome and in countries today, taxes got to purposes that Christians should find repellent, but we are still obliged to pay our taxes.
Neither does this injunction apply only to civil authority, but to all of the Christian's obligations. As Christians, we are not to live our lives in any sort of sin or vice, either.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
It may be tempting to be proud of the gifts that God has given us, especially if they are striking gifts, like the gift of prophecy, but we have all been given gifts and these gifts do not make us great, but rather reflect back on God who has given them to us. These gifts must be administered with virtue.
Paul gives a list of things that Christians must do, among them to hate evil, love good, and to repay evil with good. If you do that, those who do evil against you will either bring distress upon themselves or take the first steps to becoming converted to a Christian viewpoint.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul asks us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Some religions claim that the body is evil and thus that we should be ascetics. Others claim that since our bodies are not of any consequence, we should be free to do whatever we want with them.
Christianity tells us that this is wrong, and that since God has created our bodies good, they are good, and we must not defile those bodies by committing evil acts with them.Our bodies will rise again, as perfected bodies, on the last day. Thus, we should present our bodies as a sacrifice, not dead, like the sacrifices at the temple, but alive.
The bodies we have are to perform specific functions, as well. We cannot be jealous of the other members, but be humble and accept the gifts that we have been given for the common good.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
God foreknew some of us who would be saved. These are people who are granted salvation through God's grace, not through any other means. Paul declares that he is an apostle to the Gentiles and that he magnifies his ministry in order to stir his fellow Jews jealous and thus to save some of them. Some of the chosen people were broken off because of their unbelief, but Gentiles should also be concerned, since they are an artificial graft onto the branch of Israel, while Israel naturally belong that branch. All Israel will be saved, and those who do not persist in their unbelief will be grafted in.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
So has God rejected His people? No, God has used a people (or rather, a group who are no people) to provoke them to jealousy. The Psalms declare that God will not abandon His people. Paul notes that God had preserved a remnant in Elijah's time, and God is doing that at the time of Paul's writing. These people are not chosen by their achievements, but rather by the grace of God. There are some who refuse to knowingly reject Christ, and are satisfied that He was put to death. Those have hardened their hearts, and they are not part of the elect. It is so for every age, where some are tempted to falsely believe that they are not prone to the same sorts of errors in judgment as their ancestors.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
People cannot know Christ unless men are sent to preach His gospel to them. This must convict us to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Mission cannot exist without striving to convert the people. God says in Torah that He will stir Israel, a foolish nation up to jealousy to those who are not a nation, and in Isaiah, God says that He will be found by those who did not seek Him. They have heard His Gospel, and for those who have not accepted Him, God has forged a new nation out of the Gentiles. We must take care to not fail to take up His mission. The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul's desire is for all to be saved, both Jew and Gentile. This would not seem to have been accomplished, since there were many who tried to kill him when he returned to Jerusalem. Paul tells us that the Jews were not reckoned the promised land for their own righteousness, but that this righteousness comes from God. Paul also reminds us that Moses has petitioned for the Hebrews, asking God to have mercy despite their sinful ways. When you combine this with the fact that the prophets tell us that everyone who calls upon the name of God will be saved, it is clear that salvation is being offered to all people, Jew and Gentile alike.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
God has allowed some people throughout history to become vessels of wrath so as to make examples out of them, as He did with Pharaoh. Even in such cases, however, God does not make such a person commit evil: it is still his own choice. It is for this reason that God still finds fault in such people, and why we cannot blame our behavior on our being unable to resist His will. The reason for this is beyond our understanding, but it is something that we can see evidence for from the time of Isaiah.
Paul is troubled by the fact that the Jews have not come to Christ, and he says that if it were possible, he would cut himself off from Christ to save all of them. To the Jews belong sonship of God, still to this date. The covenants and the law belong to them as well. The lineage of Christ by the flesh comes from the Jews.
Paul looks a little more closely at the lineage, and notes that there is more to it than simply birthright, and that some descendants of Abraham are not part of the Jewish people, and thus to parse the promise that way could lead to some troubling implications for the Jews.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
After you have entered into life in Christ, returning to the life of flesh will only result in condemnation. Even though our bodies are dead, our spirits will remain alive, and the body will arise on the last day. We have become heirs to God, provided that we suffer with Him.
Flesh is subject to decay, but this decay shows us that there is something coming, something greater that will show the glory of the undecayed world. Without something to show us what hope will bring, there would be reason to hope.
God has provided for those he has called, and will conform them to the image of His Son, and since we are being provided for by God, we have nothing to worry about, if we allow ourselves to be conformed, and no thing could possibly separate us from the love of God.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
If we are in Christ, then we cannot be subject to condemnation, since Christ's death had taken on all that we could be condemned for. To say otherwise would mean that Christ's death was not effective. Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, the appearance of Christ's flesh was that of the flesh of sinful men. Paul points out that what is in the flesh is opposed to God, and that Christians are now in the spirit, not in the flesh, or else we could not please God. If we do not set our minds on the spirit, but rather, on the flesh, we will reap corruption, not eternal life.
God knows what we are capable of, but He tempers us and tests us so that we may be refined to become what we are.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Grace is just another name for the Holy Spirit. When we live under grace, our lives are transformed by Him, and we must not be idle, but rather keep embracing Him and bringing grace into our lives.
Paul laments the fact that he is still in the flesh, sold into slavery to sin. As such, Paul still does things that he does not want to do. No good comes from the flesh, but bad things come from the flesh. We are, in a sense, dragged along by sin, and yet we choose to do these things we abhor. As long as we choose not to be commanded by grace, we are in that state. None can rescue us from that state, but Jesus Christ.
Paul ends chapter seven by saying that he's mentally a slave to Christ, but physically a slave to the law of sin. This cannot be taken to be an excuse to seek anything short of perfection, since Paul tells us that we must reject the ways of the flesh.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul says that Christians can expect to triumph over sin, but that it remains possible that some may still sin, but some may incorrectly interpret this that Christians will never sin, or never be tempted to sin, or conversely, that no one can ever triumph over sin. Paul is joined by I John in this assertion.
Our original sin was completely destroyed in baptism, and we are no longer enslaved to sin, but we are all tempted, even Christ. We are given a spirit of love and discipline to resist this, and we must use that grace to strengthen ourselves.
We are bound by the law in this life, but not after death, as a woman may remarry after the death of her husband. The law was thus written not to save, but rather for sinners to understand why they were subject to death. Our master is no longer the law, but our Lord, Jesus Christ.
When we were under the law, our sinful passions were aroused by the law. The law, as taskmaster, has brought us to Christ, but now that Christ has come, that part of the law has passed away. This does not make the law sin, for without sin, we would not have known what sin is.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul tells us that the Christian ought no longer to be slave to sin, which is a very powerful statement indeed. Since Jesus died one for all and died to sin once for all, we, too are to be like Christ and put to death the sinful parts of ourselves, and not a wasting death, but a final, decisive excision. This does not relieve us of the burden of temptation, but God gives us the grace to reject sin, if we act on it.
We are no longer under the law, but under grace, but we still have the duty to avoid sin, since we become slaves of whatever we obey, whether that be righteousness or sin. We had been free from righteousness, but now that we are slaves of righteousness, we receive the grace of sanctification, and avoid the wages of sin, which is death.
We need God's gift of faith before we can begin on this journey.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Chapter 6 of Romans starts a new section in Romans, dealing with the necessity of using our faith to be conformed to the Lord's will. We must thus strive for holiness, apart from which no man will see God. We must increase in love to establish ourselves unblameable before God and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. Paul thus makes it clear that our souls must grow or else we cannot be doing God's will.
Some have chosen to selectively quote the first five chapters to mean that works are not necessary to life in Christ, but the rest of the Bible tells us that this is wrong. Works of the law do not justify us, but works of faith are essential. James rails against this belief, telling us that faith is not of any worth if it isn't evidenced by works. James calls that dead, in fact. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are made to do good works. We are certainly saved by grace alone, but we are given a faith that works through love.
Some misinterpreted the statement that where sin increased, grace increases all the more that we should sin to increase grace. Paul denies this, since we have died to sin, and sin should be antithetical to our existence. Our sinful selves died with Christ, and we must not go back to that state.
Not only did we die with Christ, but we were buried with Him in our baptism, a sort of miraculous circumcision of the heart, but made without hands. This baptism puts certain obligations on us, as well.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Sin entered the world through Adam, and we know this because all men sin. Our flawed nature is a consequence of that sin. Sin existed before the law, and although sin is not counted where there is no Law, that does not mean that we do not have any guilt for that sin. Indeed, the Law came to increase the trespass of the sin that already existed. Cain, for example, remained culpable for his actions and the Flood came as a consequence for sin.
Some may not recognize that their sin is sin against God, and those people do not have the same sense of sin as Adam, but they are culpable nonetheless. Adam's sin was especially heinous, since he knew in a very unique way what he was doing through that sin. Yet sin continued through people who did not know sin in the same way.
Jesus is also one man, but instead of condemnation, this new man brings the grace of God. By one man's disobedience, all men became sinners, but now, through one man's obedience, all men become righteous. Even so, we must be at peace with God to accept the grace that God is offering us.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul continues explaining that we are justified by faith, or as the council of Trent describes, by God's grace. Not only do we need God's grace, but without it, we cannot even grope after God, and that we must use our free will to accept or reject that grace.
This grace puts us at peace with God. Since sin is a natural tension with an all-holy God, this grace puts us at peace with Him. This should give us hope, and we should exult in our hope, but also in our sufferings. Our sufferings produce endurance, through that, character, and through that, an even greater hope.
Finally, this justification through faith gives us fruit of love. God has shown his love in that He died for us while we were still sinners. If only we will allow God to love us, we will allow ourselves to be at peace with God.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul shows us that Abraham was not justified by his works, since his faith was not earned, but rather reckoned to him, and since we are not reckoned what we are owed, this could not have been something that was owed to Abraham. Moreover, the sacrificial system is not really a way to earn any salvation, since the remission is only a gift from God and not something earned.
Abraham's faith was not a naive faith, either. Hebrews tells us that Abraham knew that since God's promise was to come through Isaac, and that God would have to raise Isaac to fulfill the promise.
Abraham's faith was reckoned to him before his circumcision, which was a seal of the covenant, and thus he is an example of faith for both the Jew and the Gentile. Just as Abraham's faith was reckoned to him, so will it be reckoned to us if we believe.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul tells us that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, apart from the Law. This is a recurring theme in Romans. All have sinned, and all require Christ's salvation. God gives us this redemption as a gift, and we are justified through faith, apart from works under the Law.
This cannot be used to support overthrowing the Law, as Paul states here and elsewhere in Romans. We are no longer under the bondage of the Law, but we are still obliged to be holy, for God is holy.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul tells Jewish Christians that if they think that they are righteous by the Law, they must follow the Law, otherwise the gain they boast in is actually judgment against them.
This is not just a litany of prohibited acts, either. The Law must penetrate into the hearts of those who profess it, as well, and it is precisely this circumcision of the heart that Christians are bound to through Baptism.
For those who do not follow the Law they claim to be heirs of, their circumcision becomes uncircumcision, and it is because of such people that the name of God is blasphemed. Those who loudly condemn certain acts and then commit the same acts cause others to see the faith as a trivial thing and invite such blasphemy. This, however, does not mean that Jewish Christianity is without merits.
Paul tells us that there are some who claim that Christians desire evil so that good may come. This philosophy is condemned, as when we sin, we sin against God and God alone, and all sin offends God. Likewise, we cannot do good works to compensate for our sinfulness, but neither can we deny the fact that God has given us the ability to do good works as a way to lead us back to Him, and we cannot abandon our obligation to do His will.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul reminds us not to judge others, since we are doing the same things, i.e. sin, even simply by savoring the thought of sin in the heart. This way of thinking may be indicative of a belief that we will somehow escape God's judgment. Those who do such things are storing up wrath in Heaven.
God's judgment will come to both the Jew and the Greek, so none will be spared because God shows no partiality. The fact that some have not yet been punished is evidence of God's forbearance and kindness that He is giving us time to repent.
Those who simply refrain from immorality are not necessarily thereby holy, and while those who follow the law will be judged by the Law, those who do not have the Law (Gentiles) will still be judged by the law written on their hearts. The sins committed in the heart will be made plain by the Judgment.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul thanks God that the Church in Rome is spoken of highly, and prays that he might come to visit them so that he can strengthen their faith, and they can strengthen his. Though he has not been able to get to Rome, yet, Paul has taken this time to preach to the Greeks, the non-Greeks, the Jews and the Gentiles. Salvation, Paul says, is to "every one who has faith."
Paul reminds us that it is written that "He who through faith is righteous shall live," meaning that God's will is made manifest through faith, as His will directs the actions of those who have faith. Those who do not have faith will incur the wrath of God. This wrath is not a petulant whim, but rather the natural tension that exists between God, who holds out life, and one who would reject it. Man has been turning away from God since the Creation, but man has always known through natural law that God exists, so he has no excuse.
We can also see from natural law that there are certain acts, namely homosexual acts, that are evidence that men have turned away from the natural order. The men of Sodom were particularly known for this act, though some in recent years have made the sin out to be inhospitality or some other sin. The act is what Paul says is sinful here, not the inclination. Paul is not focused on sexual sins, and continues to give other sins that may debase the mind.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul's epistle to the Romans was written in 35AD from Corinth to the Church in Rome, a group that Paul had not visited at the time he wrote the letter. Paul was returning to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey and viewed Rome as a necessary base through which he could extend his ministry further to the west. Rome was a well-established church at the time, and may have been the cause of agitation over "Chrestus" that Suetonius mentions. Paul was not going to build a church on top of the existing Church there.
Paul intended to send the letter as a contribution to the Romans before going up to Rome himself. To this end, he talks about his mission to the Gentiles and the pitfalls of antinomianism, which is opposed to Paul's explanation of the obedience of faith, and legalism. Romans also was an important text the interpretation of which led the Protestant faiths to break away.
Paul begins by calling himself a slave of Christ, and this implies a certain authority for Paul. Paul also calls himself an apostle, a word used to signify the twelve and also anyone sent on a missionary journey. Paul can claim to have an authority similar to that of Peter, though his mission was to the Gentiles while Peter's was to the Jews, so both would apply to him.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Not all scriptural resources will be accurate, and we must take care to study them prayerfully to determine their accuracy. An example of this is the use of the word ''friend'' in Matthew. Some sources claim that this is a kind term, but its use would indicate that it is more civil than truly kind. Similarly, the term ''evil eye'' is a term used in reference to jealousy within the Church, and not particularly to witchcraft.
We must also make sure to not view the Scriptures legalistically, since legalism cannot be the foundation of a religion.
Finally, we must be sure to weigh the Great Commission appropriately. It instructs us to instruct our children in the ways of the faith, and we must take care to obey this command.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The civil and religious authorities have asked to seal off Jesus' tomb because He has promised to rise from the dead. The fact that the authorities recognized this but not the disciples gives some indication as to how much of a shock the events must have been.
The women take on a major role as they return to anoint Jesus' body. Upon arrival, an angel appears telling the women that Jesus is no longer in the tomb, and that the women must tell the disciples that He will meet them at the appointed place in Galilee.
In Galilee, the disciples meet Jesus on a mountain, and worship Him, but some doubt (the word here also means to hesitate). Jesus comes out to meet them and gives them the Great Commission, telling His disciples to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the Trinitarian formula of Father Son and Holy Spirit, and to observe all that He has commanded.
The Gospel of Matthew was probably not conceived as a manual for converts, and the organization of the book suggests that a main theme was the progression of Jesus' teachings and how increasing tensions affected His ministry. This does not preclude reading Matthew as such a manual.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Jesus leaves His disciples after the Last Supper and goes to pray in the garden of Gethsemane. This must have been the most stressful time for any human, since He knew the pain which He was about to endure and He knew that He could avoid it, simply by dropping you and refusing to die on the cross. The disciples, exhausted by the events of the day and drained from the heavy conversation, fall asleep and Jesus chastises them for doing so.
Judas returns with a group of people and gives them a prearranged sign by kissing Jesus. The men arrest Jesus, but Peter draws his sword and attacks the slave of the high priest, cutting off the ear. Jesus immediately stops him and heals the ear, suggesting that we are not the ones to police the Kingdom of God. The soldiers take this opportunity to avoid a riot and they get Jesus and get out.
Jesus is taken to the chief priests, and He refuses to speak, knowing that there would be no benefit. The priests then demand He speak, and when He does, the high priest tore his garment. They mock Jesus and send Him to Pilate, who had the authority to sentence someone to death.
During this time, Peter denies Jesus three times and Judas, remorseful and despairing, commits suicide.
Pilate, no friend of the Jews, initially doesn't want to kill Jesus, but fearing a riot, lets the crowd do what they want. Jesus dies, and various miracles occur, including the bodies of the dead being raised and the sanctuary veil being torn in two. This causes one of the witnesses to declare that Jesus truly was the Son of God.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Jesus tells His disciples that the temple will be destroyed and speaks in stark language about the coming times in the Olivet discourse. His disciples don't fully understand what Jesus is saying, and expect that these events will come quickly. The chief priests and elders, also hearing the things that Jesus is saying, decide that they must arrest Jesus and kill Him. Jesus, knowing this in advance, prepares His disciples for the coming time.
At some point, either on Saturday, Wednesday or possibly both, Jesus is anointed with oil, and His disciples question this. Jesus explains that this is a good deed, and has prepared His body for burial. Judas is particularly upset by this and goes to the chief priests asking for money to turn Jesus over to them. He is offered thirty pieces, which recalls the 11th chapter of Zechariah.
Jesus and the apostles then go to the Passover meal. The Messiah was expected to be revealed at the passover, whence the origin of the cup for Elijah, and Jesus does indeed reveal Himself at this point, in the breaking of a portion of matzoh that has been hidden from the beginning of the meal. Judas was not present at this end of the meal, having ostensibly left for supplies sometime after Jesus identified him as the betrayer.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Christ calls the Pharisees a "Brood of vipers!"; the lament over Jerusalem; glory departing; The Olivet Discourse and the end of the age; wise and foolish virgins; the talents; separating the sheep from the goats.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
In Jerusalem, Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees, who send their disciples and some Herodians to see Jesus. These disciples ask Jesus if it lawful to pay taxes in an attempt to ensnare Jesus, knowing that He will lose popular support if He pulls His punches and favors taxes and that the Herodians will take offense if He does not. Jesus tells them that civil authority has its place, but that the affairs of God take precedence.
The Sadducees later confronted Jesus on the matter of the Resurrection of the Body, which is strongly expounded in the New Testament. They present an implausible case of a woman who is widowed seven times and remains childless. Whose wife would she be in the Resurrection? Jesus tells them that there is no marriage in Heaven and that the Resurrection must be accurate, since God is the God of the living, and those who have died are still described in the present tense in the book of Exodus.
The Pharisees send in another to challenge Jesus: what commandment is greatest? Jesus responds that the first is ''You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,'' and the second is ''You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'' The implication is that you cannot love God unless you love your neighbor. Both of these are part of the Jewish tradition, but after this, the two are very commonly linked.
Jesus then asks the Pharisees whose son the Messiah is. When they answer that he is David's son, Jesus asks them why David calls the Messiah ''Lord'' if a father would not call his son "Lord." The Pharisees leave and do not dare to ask Jesus any more questions.
Jesus then speaks out against those who would claim titles like rabbi, teacher, or father for themselves. Some of these people lay burdens on others but do not act to move their own burdens. These have turned the law into a system of punishment, turned the things of devotion to God into things of ostentation, and turned gifts of God into personal aggrandizement. This is a strong argument against a certain type of clericalism, but it should not be considered the end of clerics. Indeed, there are clear examples of teachers and fathers in the Scriptures. Instead, all the teaching is the teaching of God and should be identified as such.
Jesus then lists several woes for the Pharisees. The Pharisees are locking people out of Heaven, stop others from going into Heaven, and the converts that they attract are twice the children of Hell than the Pharisees. Those who swear oaths liberally will be held liable to God. Those who obey the minutiae of the law or purify the visible but ignore the weightier matters or fail to purify the inner structures are ignoring what is truly important.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
When Jesus is preparing to go to Jerusalem, the mother of James and John asks Him to appoint her sons to prestigious positions in the kingdom. Jesus responds that this is not His to give, but only from the Father. He then goes on to say that those who want to be great should aspire to serve others.
Jesus then goes up to Jerusalem, meeting large crowds making a pilgrimage for the Passover. Along the way, He heals two blind men who recognize Him as the Son of David, a messianic title. This recognition becomes even more vivid as He comes into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people rush out to greet Him as a prophet, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah.
After arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus drives out the money changers from the temple, and even continues His healings during this time, which leaves the scribes and priests indignant. Then we see a living parable of Jesus' power of judgment when Jesus curses a fig tree, which withers instantly. When the people ask by what authority Jesus does these things, He asks them what authority John the Baptist baptized. When they refuse to answer Jesus, Jesus refuses to answer them. Jesus continues by giving several parables about who will be chosen in the time to come, and the Pharisees, sensing that Jesus was talking about them, plot a way to entrap Him in what He says.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Jesus is asked again about marriage and divorce. He says that when two are married, they become one flesh, and incapable of separation. This is a difficult teaching and Moses allowed divorce because the people were hard-hearted. Jesus then goes on to say that there are men who are eunuchs from birth, who are made eunuchs by others, and who become eunuchs by devoting themselves to the kingdom. This includes not only priests, but others who are working for the kingdom.
Some children are brought to Jesus, but the disciples speak out against those who brought them. Jesus asks that the children be brought and He blesses them because their devoted parents have brought them, similar to how parents speak for their children in baptism.
After this, a rich man asks what he must do to have eternal life. The man already follows the commandments, but Jesus asks him to give up his possessions and follow Him. The man is not capable of showing such devotion, since he has many possessions and is not willing to give them up.
Jesus then tells another parable, about laborers in a vineyard. Some laborers work the whole day, but others are contracted later; all receive the same pay, causing the ones who worked longer to complain. The master tells them that they all have been paid fairly. God's grace is similar: those who have been faithful all their lives receive the same reward as those who become faithful late in life.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The Pharisees and Sadducees again ask for a sign, shortly after Jesus has performed many miracles, and Jesus refuses, calling them an evil and adulterous generation, and likening the Pharisees and Sadducees to yeast, which was a symbol of contamination.
Jesus names Simon Peter for his profession that Jesus is the Son of God, but then rebukes Peter for failing to realize that Jesus must suffer and die; Jesus also says that any one who wishes to follow Him must deny himself and take up his cross.
Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James and John to a mountain, where He is transfigured and shines with an intense light and Elijah the prophet and Moses the lawgiver appear next to Him. A cloud overshadows Jesus and a voice proclaims Jesus as the Son. This gives these three stronger faith in the coming kingdom.
After this, Jesus rejoins the rest of His disciples and tells them that they must become like children. Jesus also tells the people that they must seek out those who are lost, and forgive those who have sinned against them.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
John the Baptist has been arrested, and as a gift to Herodias, Herod reluctantly kills John. Many of John's disciples become disciples of Jesus shortly after this.
Jesus then performs the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, whereby thousands of people are fed by a few loaves of bread and some fish, illustrating that Christ has the ability to control matter, which He would do again at the Last Supper. When the people whom He had fed began to agitate to make Jesus king, He asks His disciples to sail from the shore. After Jesus quiets the crowds, He comes to the ship, walking on the water. When Peter sees this, he is cautious and asks Jesus to bid him to come. Jesus tells Peter to come, and Peter begins to walk on the water, but when he gets part of the way out, he becomes frightened and begins to sink. Jesus saves him and the disciples begin to worship Jesus as the Son of God. Only two chapters later, Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is.
Jesus is then confronted by the Pharisees because His disciples don't wash their hands before they eat, but Jesus replies that this precept is a tradition of man, and not a commandment of God. After this, Jesus meets a Canaanite woman who asks that Jesus would cast out a demon from her daughter. His disciples ask Him to send her away, and He challenges her, saying that it is not right to give the children's bread to the dogs, but she persists, and for her persistence, Jesus casts out the demon.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Jesus begins to exorcise demons and some claim that He does not do that by God's power but by the devil's. Jesus notes that it would make no sense for the devil to drive out more of his own demons than the other exorcists are doing, and warns them not to take their declarations too far and blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.
Jesus then gives several parables, including the parables of the soil, the tares, the leaven, and the mustard seed. Taking some of the disciples aside, He describes the parables as a way to deliver knowledge to those who will hear, and then He explains the parables to the disciples.
Jesus then visits Nazareth and meets several of His kinsmen there who cannot believe that someone that they knew is capable of such wisdom and deeds, and for this sort of disbelief, Jesus does not do many deeds of power there.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
John the Baptist hears about Jesus' deeds from prison and asks if He is the messiah. John's questions do not belie a cynicism, but rather the actions of one who is seeking Truth and wants to confirm his beliefs. Like John, we should not be afraid to ask questions to make sure that we are not being led astray. Jesus responds that John should look at His works. Jesus then tells people about John the Baptist, who came in the power of Elijah, fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi, who foretold that Elijah would come before the day of the Lord.
Jesus then performs two acts on the Sabbath, about which the Pharisees ask him, and to explain why, Jesus comes as close as possible to declaring Himself the messiah as He can without actually saying it. For this, the Pharisees seek to destroy Jesus.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Matthew continues with a brief account of the healing of a paralytic, who is brought to Jesus by his friends. Jesus, touched by their faith, forgives the man's sins. The Pharisees took issue with this, since only God can forgive sins, but Jesus does not back down, instead claiming the messianic title Son of Man and healing the paralyzed man.
Jesus then calls 12 disciples whom he gives the authority to drive out spirits and heal sickness. These apostles are given instructions about how to perform their mission, and told to expect that many will treat them harshly. The same is true for all who proclaim the Gospel, even to this day.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Shortly after Jesus begins His ministry, John the Baptist is arrested and Jesus begins to ramp up His ministry, proclaiming a message of repentance, and in fact manifesting His power with the very intimate healing of a leper and the healing of a Gentile centurion's servant.
Jesus has some very strong teaching on mission, telling men that they must leave behind all earthly things if they wish to become His disciples. The mission is difficult work, and involves relying on the hospitality of towns to allow Jesus and His disciples to enter and work miracles there. Even after He heals a demoniac, the Gadarenes beg Him to leave the area because His healing disturbs them.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Matthew and the other synoptic gospels emphasize Jesus' mission in Galilee, where most of the Gospel was spread. Jesus sought to keep this ministry moving slowly so that the ministry would not be derailed. In this part of the ministry, He healed people of physical and spiritual illnesses and preached a compassionate message to the poor, including the Beatitudes. This compassion is not simply being nice to each other, but requires action on our part. We must be pure-minded in seeking out God, we must forgive people and not hold grudges, and we must not make a show of our faith.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The Gospel that Jesus preaches is recounted as being preceded by John the Baptist, who came in the mode of Elijah and preaching a baptism of repentance. John was a fairly ascetic man, and his coming as a voice crying in the wilderness heralds the time of the Christ. John's message is quite stark, warning that the God will soon make a harvest of souls.
Jesus comes to John to be baptized, but John objects, declaring that he needs to be baptized by Jesus. Jesus allows Himself to be baptized to ''fulfill all righteousness,'' and in doing so, blesses the waters and transforms them into the waters of the sacrament. At this point, the Spirit of God descends like a dove and a voice declares, ''This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.''
Jesus then leaves for the wilderness to be tempted or tested for forty days and forty nights. Satan tests Jesus, but He beats the devil back on all counts. When John is imprisoned, Jesus begins to proclaim the Gospel and seeking out apostles.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
According to the Targums, we know that the prophecy that a ''young woman'' or ''virgin'' would bear a son was translated by the Alexandrian scholars as meaning ''virgin,'' and that there was an implication that this was an unusual sign, as high as Heaven or as low as Sheol. A young woman having a son would not be such a significant sign.
The fact that the sign appears as a star to pagans tells us that God wants to give his message to those who are seeking Him out. The fact that the Christ comes from Bethlehem is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Micah that Bethlehem is 'not the least, for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people.' There is similarly a notion in John that the Christ must come from Bethlehem.
Mary was going into labor and so the Holy Family sought out any shelter they could. Finding a stable in which she could give birth, shortly thereafter they sought out family in Bethlehem and stayed in that house. This is where the Magi find Christ. This event surely must have come after the Presentation in the Temple, since it would have been difficult to journey to Egypt and back in secrecy within the short span of 40 days.
Like Pharaoh of old, Herod sought to kill the entire male population, and the similarities to Pharaoh are very strong. There is a prophecy about Rachel, who died looking to Bethlehem, and Jeremiah delivered a prophecy about a cry going up from Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children, which is fulfilled by Herod's slaughter of children in that same city. The prophecy that ''He shall be called a Nazarene'' seems to be a fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1, as there is a similarity between the root of the words ''branch'' and ''Nazareth.''
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
St. Jerome tells us that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic, and that it was reworked into a Greek version later, which is supported by some evidence. Jerome also tells us that Matthew was the first gospel, but the actual order of composition is not clear. Matthew is also associated with a winged human in ecclesiastical symbolism, though this is not part of the inspired text.
The initial genealogy is abbreviated and separated into 3 sets of 14 generations beginning with Abraham, which provide a synopsis of Jewish history. Three women are mentioned in this genealogy, which is unusual for Jewish genealogies: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth.
Matthew then begins the infancy narrative. Mary is a virgin who is betrothed to Joseph, which was more like marriage than a modern-day engagement. When Mary is found with child, Joseph resolves to divorce her privately, but an angel tells Joseph to remain with Mary and the child, who is to be called Emmanuel, which is translated for the benefit of Greeks as 'God with us.'
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
After the death of Antipater, Antigonus became high priest after mutilating the high priest Hyrcanus. Herod had been quickly rising to prominence, marrying into the house of Hasmon, sending his wife into exile, and Herod sought to have the Romans proclaim him leader of the Jews. Rome did declare him King of the Jews, a title never before declared for someone who was not of nobility. To ensure that the Hasmonean dynasty never returned to challenge his position, the remaining heirs to the Hasmonean dynasty suspiciously died.
Alexandra, the mother of one of these heirs, sent to Rome to request an inquiry, and Marc Antony requested that Herod defend himself. Herod went to Rome, but left instructions that if Antony killed him, his wife must die as well. His wife discovered this plan and this caused much intrigue and eventually his wife's death when Herod returned alive.
Herod built a new temple in Jerusalem and also several temples to Roman gods. It is against this backdrop that the magi arrived in Jerusalem and ask Herod ''where is the king born of the Jews?'' Herod, who was not born king, was outraged at this and sought to eliminate this threat. After he died, Herod was buried near the cave where Jesus was born.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The Romans came to rule Judea in 63 BC. Leading up to that, the high priests of the Hasmonean Dynasty were the de facto kings in Israel, though their official title was Ethnarch. This dynasty began from the Maccabees, and lasted roughly eighty years. They did not want to be seen as usurping the rightful place of the line of David, since they were dependent on the pious Jews. The line of David was still known through this period, but it had fallen into obscurity. In this sense, the Hasmonean state is a biblical anomaly, lacking any leaders truly chosen by God. These rulers tended to be despots of a sort similar to Oriental and Hellenistic despots. These rulers were also expansionist, reacting to the rising birth rates of the neighboring countries. These circumstances give rise to a large upsurge in Messianic hope.
Salome Alexandra instituted a number of changes that pleased the Pharisees, and was fondly remembered by them for this. Her sons, Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus, fought for the high priesthood. At this point, Pompey comes to Israel and seeks an alliance with Hyrcanus, since Israel had sought such an alliance before. Hyrcanus was confirmed as high priest, but the position of king was saved for Rome, with local political authority resting in Hyrcanus' minister, Antipater the Idumean. Antipater made his son Phasael governor of Jerusalem and his other son Herod, who would be called the Great, was made governor of Galilee. Then, in 43 BC, Antipater was poisoned and the two sons battled for control of Judea.Messianic hope in the days of the Maccabees; the rise of the Pharisees and Salome Alexandra; Roman History.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Out of the Maccabean revolt, three rulers rise successively, Judah Maccabee, Jonathan, and then Simon. Simon and two of his his sons were murdered, and only John Hyrcanus was left to rule. Various other rulers rise and fall, but Salome Alexandra is the only woman in antiquity to rule Judea and be praised for it.
During this time, Israel was consolidating power and various cities were breaking from Seleucid empire. John Hyrcanus rules as high priest and ethnarch, annexing Samaria and the remnants of Edom (now the Idumeans), forcing the people to become Jewish and be circumcised. The leading families of the Idumeans would become important, including the family of Herod.
During the later times leading up to Roman rule, the Jewish rulers start calling themselves kings, and their courts populated by Hellenized Jews. Several factions emerge, including the Pharisees and Essenes who react against these rulers. The Pharisees have a number of beliefs, such as belief in the resurrection and in oral tradition, that mark them as very different from the beliefs of the ruling class, which would include the Sadducees.
The Pharisees also had leaders who were not priests, but rather what would become the modern-day rabbi. The tension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees reached a head when the Pharisees demanded that the king choose between being a king or being high priest. The king sided with the Sadducees, which led to a civil war and suppression of the Pharisees.
Be sure to look at the image embedded in the MP3, which will make it much easier to follow.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The period between the Maccabean Revolt and Roman rule of Judea is not represented by any writings in the Scriptures, but like all things that touch the history of Israel and Christ, it is worth studying. The Hasmoneans, named after the house of Hasmon, are not related to David, but are a priestly family from the tribe of Levi.
The Maccabean Revolt started when Mattathias, a Hasmonean, refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, with the eventual result that the Temple was purged and rededicated an event the Jews celebrate at Hanukkah for eight days.
After the fighting had ended and Roman and Spartan rulers had expressed their support for Simon Maccabeus as high priest, and King Demetrius confirmed Simon as high priest and afforded him most of the traditional effects of a king, though Simon was not granted that title.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
At the time of the Greeks, the Davidic line passes into obscurity, and the political power in Israel is held by the high priests. One such high priest, Onias II, refuses to pay taxes to the Ptolemaic empire. The Tobiad family steps in to cover the debt, and winds up becoming responsible for the tax collection in Israel. The Seleucid Empire takes over Israel, and gives the Jews certain concessions for their assistance.
Onias III becomes high priest, and owing to a dispute with the governor of the Temple, receives a favorable preliminary ruling from the Seleucid Empire. Onias tries to confirm the ruling, but while he seeks out this confirmation, a new emperor takes power, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
In Jerusalem, a new group of rulers also takes over, and a man named Jason becomes high priest. Jason was not a particularly pious man, and allows certain Hellenistic influences into Israel, most notably a gymnasium. In this gymnasium, the men exercise naked, and in order to appear more like the Greeks whom they exercise with, some Jews begin to have cosmetic surgery to reverse their circumcisions.
Meanwhile, a man named Menelaus convinces the Seleucids to assassinate Onias III and remove Jason to have himself named high priest. Menelaus starts selling off temple vessels, and the people riot. Menelaus seeks help from the Seleucids, who put down the riots bloodily. To keep the peace, the Seleucids conscript some Jews to build a garrison near the temple, and decide to begin construction on a Sabbath to prevent riots. This backfires and there are even more riots. The pro-Greek populace moved into the garrison and only left to enforce the edicts of the empire. People fled Jerusalem, since it was not safe for either orthodox or liberal.
Antiochus wages a preemptive war on Egypt and wins, but the cost of the war causes him to despoil the Temple. As Antiochus attempts to completely conquer Egypt, Rome intervenes and turns Antiochus back, who now places the blame for this failure on the disunity in the empire caused by the nonconforming Jews.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
After the Persian period, the Greeks conquered a vast empire, spreading Hellenistic Greek culture throughout the area from Rome to India. Alexander the Great conquered the area from Rome and Egypt to India, including Israel. This land would be divided after Alexander's death, and the area including Israel was known as the Seleucid Empire, ruled by Ptolemy. The Jews found themselves increasingly in opposition to these new Greek rulers in Israel. This sets up the conditions which will result in the Maccabean revolt.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Period history up to the beginning of 1 Maccabees.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The return to the land of Israel was an event which really broadened the world of the Israelites. When Jews began forming a Diaspora, it clarified the concept that God was not just a local deity, but rather the God of the universe. Babylon, in particular, appears as a true cosmopolis until the time when Revelation was written.
As previously stated, the Persians, unlike the Babylonians, allowed a moderate amount of home rule, which was eventually exploited to build a second temple around 522BC, after prodding by Haggai and Zechariah. This second temple was much smaller than the temple built by Solomon, and those who had seen the first temple were struck by the difference between the two.
Zechariah and Haggai prophesy that Zerubbabel will see the completion of the temple, and for that, he is part of the earthly lineage of the Christ. While the people set about funding the rebuilding of their own homes, they do not do all they can to fund the rebuilding of the temple. God, through Haggai, chastises the people for not funding the process and afflicts the land with a drought as punishment. The rebuilding of the temple takes seven years, and then 50 years after that, Nehemiah, the governor arrives in the land. Ezra proclaims the law to the people, and for the Jews, this triumphant echo of Moses forms the end of the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The Persians under Xerxes invade Greece, and have some success until Greece expels them. It is during this period that the Book of Esther takes place, a book that has great significance when considering the tensions between the many cultures in the Middle East at the time. After Xerxes, the Persia is ruled by Artaxerxes and Artaxerxes II (among others).
From a more religious perspective, after the return to Israel, Malachi rails against the dullness he sees in the religion as people were practicing it. This should not be surprising, since every generation needs to be evangelized, lest the people fall into a civic religion. It is during this period that the Book of Esther takes place, a book that has great significance when considering the tensions between the many cultures in the Middle East at the time. The prophets and writers of this time period, including Jesus son of Sirach, should remind us that we must refresh our faith today with the same vigor that was demanded by the prophets.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The Jewish canon ends the Hebrew Scriptures after the return from the Babylonian Exile. While the canon continues for Christians, there is not much Scripture for the 500 years between the return from Babylon and the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. There are many events that occurred in this time, and placing them into a context is important.
The return from exile was did not result in all the Jews returning, nor did they return to a land empty of their kinsmen. Many Jews remained in Babylon, which would remain there for many years after, even compiling the authoritative Babylonian Talmud there. Many lower-class people were allowed to stay in Israel when they were taken into exile, and the influx of that many people posed problems for them. After the conquest of the northern tribes, foreigners came into that land and promoted a form of worship that would become the Samaritans.
The temple had been destroyed, and the rebuilt temple was only a shadow of its original glory. After its completion, Ezra gathered the Jews and read them the Law, which chastened them and convinced them to return to the worship of the true God.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
This was recorded at the 2009 Rochester Chesterton Society Conference.
It is very easy to allow ourselves to experience wonder on a purely intellectual basis, which misses the point, since wonder is too powerful to be experienced merely through the intellect.
We should wonder at some of the amazing things written in the Scriptures and at what they should mean to us: if we are created in God's image, how wondrous must that be!
There is also a hierarchy of wonders. While we can and should regard the things God has created and holy artifacts with wonder, these things are only temporary and we must regard the eternal with a greater wonder, and nothing can be as wondrous of the mystery of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are commanded to wonder at these things, in part by the Shema Yisrael (Deut 6), which instructs us all to love God with all our heart, soul and might and think on this always and to teach this to our children.
This was recorded at the 2009 Rochester Chesterton Society Conference.
As we grow older, we lose our grasp on a sense of wonder in the world. Wonder is modulated by time and repetition, but there are three cases unaffected by time: youth, art and eternity, and it is by studying these three cases where we may reawaken our sense of wonder.
GK Chesterton, CS Lewis and others have commented on how wonder works in our lives. CS Lewis, for example, writes that angels cannot truly grasp the wonder in such simple acts as breathing, since they lack a corporeal form. There are many things for men to wonder at in the world, if we would only take the time.
St. Irenaeus Ministries was invited to be a guest on the Life on the Rock program on EWTN on September 4, 2008. This is a recording of that portion of the program.
St. Irenaeus Ministries is a Rochester, NY based apostolate promoting orthodox Catholic faith named after St. Irenaeus, an early Christian bishop and writer only two generations removed from the time Christ walked the earth who spoke out against heresies. We discuss our activities, with special focus on the practical implications of evangelization, such as conversion. Special attention must also be paid to promoting renewal, and strategies for promoting renewal and a real, living, active faith include paraclesis (the act of walking beside) and challenging men and women through ministries such as Bible study, discipleship counsel, fellowship, and religious teaching, which are discussed thoroughly.
It is the duty of all Christians to bring the message of Christ to the world, not just through programs, but by bringing the message out of the pews and shining forth Christ to everyone we meet, personally and one-on-one. Christ's message is a radical one and requires a radical commitment to His message, and we need brethren to encourage us.
You can also watch this interview on YouTube.
To purchase a copy of this episode of Life on the Rock on DVD, visit the EWTN religious Catalogue.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus tells us that there will be wars and rumors of wars that many will wrongly think to be the coming of the end. This suggests that the end will be many years from the time of the Discourse, and thus it is appropriate to focus our attention on how the Apocalyptic impacts our lives today.
We should look to this present time not as a time of delay or a time of anticipation, but as a time when God is making the preparations for the time to come. We must not see this as a time to relax, but it is also unwise to look for numerology or hints to the time of the end. This present time is one where troubles happen, and some of these troubles may have to do with God's plan for the end times, but many will not. God has graciously given us this time so that we may repent, but we should be living it as though the end times are imminent.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
The early Church viewed the apocalyptic writings as vital to the faith. Early Christians saw the end times as imminent, though not necessarily coming soon, as suggested by the exhortation to preach the Gospel to all the nations. In the same way, faulty wiring might pose an imminent danger, but it might not actually cause a catastrophe for many years.
We also look in-depth at the circumstances surrounding the Olivet Discourse and some prophecies in Daniel.
Every generation should see itself as standing on the precipice of the end times, an end which God has delayed through His mercy so that we may have time to repent. We must keep our attention on the end and keep Heaven as our goal.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Continuing the discussion of Christian Apocalyptic literature, we read excerpts from Daniel, who prophesies the coming of the Christ, the pseudepigraphal Enoch, which expands on the Sons of God mentioned in the book of Genesis.
The Olivet Discourse is another example, where Jesus expounds on the last days, as a capstone to a series of questions He was asked.
Like the early Church, we do not know when the End Times will come, but we must assume that the end may be coming at any time, and we must look for the signs that it is coming.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
This is a direct continuation of the series on 2 Peter and Jude.
Apocalyptic literature refers to writings that reveal the hidden things of God. It is a new term, not one that apocalyptic writers applied to themselves, and there is some debate as to which works are apocalyptic and which are merely prophetic. It is found in canonical and extra-canonical writings of both the Old and New Testaments, mainly after the Babylonian Exile, usually in times of persecution, especially the time from 200BC to 200AD, and deals with the end times (eschatology).
Apocalyptic visions are dramatic and often wild and highly symbolic, and often mediated through an angel. There is no definitive list of apocalyptic literature, but commonly cited as examples are Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zephaniah, Revelation, 2 Thessalonians, The Olivet Discourse (found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke), as well as the extra-canonical books of 1 and 2 Enoch, Jubilees, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, 4 Esdras, 2 Baruch, The Testament of Abraham, and the Apocalypse of Abraham. The extra-canonical books are called pseudepigrapha (or falsely ascribed writings) to distinguish them from the deuterocanonical books sometimes called apocrypha by Protestants.
Apocalyptic eschatology differs from prophetic eschatology in a few ways, but one difference is that some see prophetic eschatology as more personal and more naturalistic, while apocalyptic eschatology is more obviously supernatural and deals with God breaking into history in cataclysmic ways coming from above. Others would note that even in prophetic eschatology, it is God's will which the prophecy follows. Apocalypse is often less well-accepted into the mainstream than other prophecy, but none of these criteria should be viewed as absolute; there is much room for dispute.
Some believe these apocalyptic writings were composed in part to give an answer to why the pious were continuing to be persecuted and the end of prophecy. This is probably true of the pseudepigraphal works, though it must be clear that apocalyptic prophecy is given by God, and not brought down by man. There was a rise in apocalyptic writing in the 19th century in an attempt to understand why some Christian sects were becoming more liberal.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
In verses 6 and 7, Jude identifies the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as unnatural lust, and not just in-hospitality. Although the ancient world had no real equivalent to the modern conception of sexual preference, it cannot be said that the Bible has no preference regarding sexuality.
Throughout the passage here and later on in verse 14 there is a reference to the apocryphal book of Enoch (verse 14 goes as far as quoting the book) and the ''sons of God'' in Genesis 6. It is unclear what Jude thinks of the book as a whole (the Church eventually rejected it from the canon), but he seems to think the verse he cited was a prophecy.
Jude then speaks against those false teachers who have ''reviled whatever they do not understand,'' and who ''follow their own lusts'' and flatter ''people to gain advantage.'' These worldly people are devoid of the Holy Spirit.
It is notable that Jude refers to Moses and Enoch, both of whom were assumed into Heaven, and that both Sodom and Gomorrah and Korah's rebellion are cases where the Earth opened up to swallow up something into Hell. Much of the language here is similar or identical to that in 2 Peter, suggesting that these authors are consulting a common source (an apostolic memo, perhaps).
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
This short lesson on Jude and the one that follows it are a direct continuation of the series on 2nd Peter.
The epistle of Jude is very short, but Jude does not shy away from controversy. Jude is the English translation of the Greek name Judas, which ultimately derives from the Hebrew word Judah. We translate it this way to avoid the association with Judas Iscariot, though the name was common in that time. Jude is identified as the brother of James, the bishop of Jerusalem, who is often identified as James the Less (though this identification is difficult to support in the light of 1 Cor 15).
Also noteworthy in the introduction: Jude appears not to see himself in the role of apostle, since he does not identify himself as one, unlike most of the other epistles. Jude appears to be writing while James, who died in the early 60s, is still alive, thus dating this epistle very early. The fact that the issues of false teachers were pressing and were being dealt with at such an early time should be a comfort to those of use who see false teachings today.
Jude says that these false teachers were bound to be, and thus we should not to be scared, since our Lord expected this. The manner in which Jude describes these false teachers is very similar to the way that this is described in 2 Peter, suggesting that there was some collaboration, possibly by a now-lost rubric for dealing with these errors.
Jude then states that the faith has been imparted once for all, implying that there will be no new doctrines, and that those teaching new doctrines are false teachers who have crept into the Church. Jude then goes on to explain that the Hebrews leaving Egypt were likewise fully informed and many fell away, which puts an end to the concept of ''once saved always saved.''
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Peter discusses the teaching of some who claim that Jesus will not come again and deliberately ignore what Jesus has said concerning this. The people Peter is writing about are unhappy with spiritual power and turn not only from the teaching on the end times but also the prophets and the commandments. God created the world out of nothing, and He covered it in the Flood, so He is surely powerful. What is more, God is not slow in His coming, but rather in His mercy has delayed His return to give us time to repent, and some have chosen to see this mercy as a sign of aloofness. This is not out of ignorance but rather a deliberate denial of certain inconvenient facts.
To the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, but when the end comes, it will be like a thief coming in the night. If we are looking forward to that day, we may hasten it by living godly lives. When the end does come, God will take care of His people, not by preserving them from death, but in some cases reserving them for martyrdom. These people will receive their reward in the resurrection of the body.
How much are we and even some teachers in the Church exhorting our fellow Christians to be mindful of these facts today?
Peter then reminds the people to be without spot or blemish and to consider this time of delay as salvation. He tells them that some of Paul's writings have been twisted by the ignorant and unstable to their own destruction. In doing this, Peter tells us two things. First, Paul's epistles are scripture to Peter, and second, though there may be tensions between the apostles, there was never any rivalry or animosity. Peter then concludes by returning to the themes of growth, knowledge and journey.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Peter concludes his message which he was probably writing in the final days of his life, racing to give his fellow Christians a final exhortation before he joins the Church Triumphant. In chapter 2, Peter spoke at length on the false teachers and schismatics, and in the third chapter, he narrows his focus to those who were concerned that Jesus had not yet come again. Peter addresses two issues that the people scoff at, namely the words of the prophets and the teachings of Christ, and we can see the same issues today in the people. People can be uneasy with supernatural religion, since it is not on their terms.
Some in the ancient Church were claiming that since the Second Coming had not yet happened, it would never occur, and they were using this to follow their own passions. Peter denounces this by first stating that the statements of the apostles and the prophecies of the Old Testament are both equally the word of God. These scoffers existed in the ancient Church, Peter tells us that they will be with us in the last days, and they are with us today because the people are extraordinarily resilient and desire to go back to normalcy, even in an abnormal situation. Peter echoes Jesus in noting that this is much like the people in Noah's time.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Peter says that the false prophets have come, but that the false teachers will be, which may suggest that he sees the time of the prophets as over. He then speaks out about the destructive heresies (or schools), which by their very nature cause division in the Church. In this sense, the heretic and the schismatic are first cousins, one offends the holiness of God, while the other offends the wholeness of God's plan, as the early Church has stated. Some of these operate in the Church (as even Judas shows), and while we trust the mind of the Church not to lead us into error, we must remain alert to the actual teaching that those that claim to come in the name of Holy Mother Church to make sure that it is in line with what she teaches. This is said that we might not have opportunity to be led astray, and that we might attend to our own formation.
Again we look at the methods of those offering false teachings which often come secretly or from the side, and perhaps contain a kernel of truth and then distorting it. In some cases, these heresies come from people who do not accept their role in God's plan, which we have seen leading to every type of heresy. The Old Testament speaks extensively to the unsavory consequences of those such as Uzziah who try to usurp the authority not given to them. Some heretical teachers are called ''false brethren'' by Paul in Galatians 2:4. These would infiltrate the Church as far as they could, but then break with it. God will punish those who are willfully wicked or do not live the Truth, but He will look after those who look to Him.
Peter narrows his comments here, referring specifically to those who attack those who are new to the faith and refers to these teachers as waterless clouds and mists driven by storm, completely lacking in any good teaching. Those who follow these teachers would have been better never knowing the Truth than to have turned away from it. We must listen to and live by the teaching that we have been given throughout the Apostles, and not to those that would lead us astray.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
We must examine the things that are being taught, regardless of who teaches it to us. 2 Peter chapter 2 deals with this extensively, discussing the teachings of heresies, or sects of people who disagree with the orthodox teachings.
Peter speaks about false teachings that were extant at the time he was writing, but there are false teachers even today. Though these false teachers may not know that they are teaching error, they are a diabolical force on the world and the Church. There are a numbers of condemnations of these destructive heresies, warranting a comparison to great judgments in the Old Testament.
Looking at the sources of heresies, we find that people were looking for answers at that time, and many were seduced by a misreading of Christ's message that was either ascetic and denied the flesh or hedonistic and denied the ability for the flesh to impact the spirit. Leaders were only too eager to help because the received rewards of money, the flesh, or power.
It is sometimes easy to turn a blind eye to this, but we must never forget that there are real consequences to error that affect real people that will cause real suffering. Many of these false teachings come in "from the side" in a clandestine manner and appear in some position of authority. These people betray their true beliefs when they claim to remain faithful while encouraging others to join them in their error. To honor someone who is making a shipwreck of his or her faith simply because of the office is actually to do dishonor to the office.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Peter proclaims that he is a servant of Christ like the rest of us and makes a very explicit statement that Jesus is the God and Savior which is not as common in the Gospels as more oblique references. He then turns to his theme for this letter, which is that knowledge of God is not enough; we must also act on it. No addressee is named, and the traditional thanksgiving prayer is omitted from this letter. This may mean that this was written for multiple audiences toward the end of Peter's life as the persecution was being stepped up.
Peter then notes that divine power has assigned to them all things related to eternal life and godliness and by this we may escape our passions and partake in the divine nature, a form of apotheosis. Peter then sets up a series of supports for faith that build upon each other: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.
This is a map for spiritual progress and we must keep moving forward on it, or risk our faith mutating into something else and the way Peter discusses this indicates that this was a well-known formula in first century Christianity.
Peter then recounts the events of Christ's baptism and transfiguration to show that they have been eyewitnesses to His majesty as evidence that these stories are not myths but rather a message like a bright light shining in a dark place.
No prophecy of Scripture, Peter then compels us to understand, came from human will, but rather from the Holy Spirit.
Peter ends with a discussion of the coming of Christ, which is more characteristic of the early Church than the modern Church. This more pilgrim Church should serve as the sort of bright light that Peter mentions in the first chapter, and we would do well to follow this example in the modern Church.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
This begins a series entitled ''Second Peter, Jude, and the Christian Apocalyptic". While each the three sections can stand on its own, they share many common themes.
Second Peter is a pastoral letter with some apocalyptic elements traditionally attributed to St. Peter. It and and Jude share so much each other that some have questioned Second Peter's authenticity. There are many arguments on how to date the text and how to identify the author and the author's motives, but an internal analysis of the text does not permit that the author had any of the usual reasons for creating pseudepigraphal works. It is cited by many of the early Church fathers. The Church has declared Second Peter to be canonical and has cited it extensively in its arguments on pastoral issues, and our faith in Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tell us that the text is accurate.
The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul is welcomed by the brethren in Jerusalem, and is shown many Jewish converts to Christianity who are zealous for the law. Many of these had heard that Paul advises converts to forsake Moses, and Paul is told to -- and does indeed -- help some converts to perform a purification ritual to prove that this accusation is untrue. (Paul in fact writes in Galatians that the circumcised should live according to the circumcision.)
Some Jews from Asia see Paul in the temple and mistakenly believe that the converts are Greek Gentiles and that Paul has defiled the temple by doing this. A riot breaks out across Jerusalem, and Paul is arrested. The tribune asks Paul to speak to the crowds, which he does, though the crowds erupt again when Paul tells of the mission to the Gentiles. Paul is then taken away again, but when they find out that he is a Roman citizen, the Roman authorities send him to the Sanhedrin. Paul then pits the Pharisees and the Sadducees against each other and gets off.
Forty men then take up a plot to kill Paul. Paul discovers this and is then taken to Caesarea, where he is shuffled around various rulers (Felix, Festus, and King Agrippa II) and then makes an appeal to the emperor, which means that his case must be heard by the Emperor. On his way to Rome, he is shipwrecked on Malta, where he spends the winter and makes a strong impression on the people there.
Paul then arrives at Rome and the believers meet him as he is in chains. He then makes an impassioned plea to the local leaders of the Jews, who have not heard much about him other than general news of the sect. Some listened but others turned away when Paul claimed that the Gentiles were to be preached to as well. He lived in Rome for two years and sent several letters in the next few years, including one to Timothy where he dispatches several people to preach the good news and asks for material to continue to study. Beyond this, we do not have any definitive information on the life of St. Paul.
Paul's life challenges us to think of the Church as something more than a social group, and to shine forth Christ. If we see the Church as merely a denomination, we do a disservice to the true Church of God. We must keep an active life of mission to bring people to the truth of God and work to form a community to spread the word of Christ.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 6 in G Minor - Allemanda-Allegro, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
The end of our Life of St. Paul series coincides with the end of the Church's observance of the Year of St. Paul. We hope that this year of Pauline material has been beneficial to you. As always, your feedback and comments can be directed to podcast@siministries.org, and are very much appreciated.
After a brief of discussion Corinth and how it is important as one of the most detailed descriptions of the early Church, we move back to the second missionary journey, describing how Paul corrects some of the errors of Apollos other Ephesians. While in Ephesus, several people who had in the past practiced magic publicly burned their magic books. The silversmiths, not happy with the loss of business that the Christians were causing to the temple of Artemis, cause some trouble and Paul leaves Ephesus.
Following a missed rendezvous in Troas, Paul receives word from Titus that Corinth is at peace with him and he continues on to winter in Corinth for three months. It was here that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, intending full well to continue on. A plot against Paul turns him around to return by land through Troas, rather than by water as he had expected. Paul then speaks about how the Holy Spirit tells him that imprisonment awaits him in every city, and Jerusalem in particular. Paul then talks about how he has not withheld any portion of the gospel and thus that he is not responsible for the blood of the people.
Then, after exhorting the Ephesian elders to watch for wolves, Paul goes up into Caesarea and then Jerusalem.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 6 in G Minor - Allemanda-Allegro, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
After Paul leaves Perga, his company arrives in Antioch in Pisidia (a different Antioch than the great Syrian city). Soon their ministry to the Gentiles spreads throughout this entire region. Such success brought much consternation to a number of Jews.
In every synagogue and Gentile gathering, Paul takes every opportunity to boldly proclaim the Gospel. His powerful proclamation of the Word excites much joy and many conversions among some. Others are enraged by his message and frank approach.
Ministering to Gentiles ever proves to be an exciting endeavor: in Lyconium, Paul is mistaken for Hermes and Barnabas for Zeus and only with great difficulty do they convince them not to offer sacrifice on their behalf.
Paul’s adversaries in each city tend to be Non-Christian Jews and Judaizers, those Christians who say circumcision is necessary for salvation. The issue of circumcising Christians becomes a hot-button issue, and it is eventually addressed by the Council of Jerusalem. At this council the early Church rules that Gentile Christians must abstain from eating meat with blood in it, engaging in fornication, and practicing any type of idolatry. After attending this council, Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch.
From Antioch, Barnabas asks Paul to join him in a visit to all the churches they had planted on their first Missionary Journey. The two argue whether or not to bring John Mark on the journey, and part company over the issue. Paul and Silas then begin the Second Missionary Journey, picking up key disciples like Timothy as they travel.
When the Holy Spirit prevents Paul from entering the Roman province of Asia, he journeys to Europe. It is during this period that the Gospel first reaches the major metropolitan cities of Corinth and Ephesus. It is at this time that he meets Priscilla and Aquilla. He also incites even more negative reaction from the Jews.
His ministry becomes increasingly dynamic during the Second Missionary journey. With the exception of Athens, it seems that the larger the city he enters, the greater the fruit. Possessing orthodox theology, awe-inspiring miracles, deep learning and mature pastoral skills, he is nothing short of a marvel. This missionary-statesman inaugurates a new chapter in Christianity.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Affettuoso, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Having powerfully witnessed Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul finds his zeal redirected and renewed towards the Gospel. But who in the early Church (which was almost entirely Jewish) could have imagined the great outpouring of faith upon the Gentiles that came from the ''First Missionary Journey''?
After praying and fasting, the leaders of the Antioch Church sent off Saul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel, ''the work to which [the Holy Spirit had] called them.''
Their setting sail from Antioch to Cyprus (an intentional invasion of Gentile territory to convert the world) was nothing short of revolutionary and entirely unprecedented in the Jewish world.
Shortly thereafter the missionaries become known as ''Paul and company.'' They depart for the further travels, eventually traveling to Europe. As the journey continues, the grace-inspired genius of this missionary strategist comes to the fore.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Allegro, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
The persecution of ''the Way'' that followed the stoning of Stephen spurred a large Jewish Christian diaspora. Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem spread all across the Mediterranean world. While many of them kept solely Hebraic social circles after settling into new homes, the exceptions were the inhabitants of Cyprus and Cyrene (a region in North Africa). Likely traders or Mediterranean businessmen, these men began speaking to Gentiles about Jesus. Some of these Gentiles were ''Godfearers'' familiar with Judaism, and others were pagan intellectuals and their family members.
At this time in Church History, the conversion of Gentiles to ''the Way'' was still a controversial issue. The quesiton of whether or not they had to become Jewish first was fiercely debated. While the inclusion of Cornelius was largely accepted (who would argue with the Holy Spirit?), he was just one Gentile; the potential inclusion of thousands of Gentiles posed a very real difficulty for many Jewish Christians who treasured their doctrine and blood-lines. Rampant racial prejudice in this region also contributed to the problem.
The largest Gentile contingent in the early Church was in Antioch. Barnabas enlists Saul of Tarsus to help catechize this large number, which was in the thousands. For an entire year, these two men teach the people. Saul has been instructing people in ''the Way'' for a dozen years at this point, though this is his first ''class'' of Gentiles.
By this time, he is a profoundly spiritual man, a worker of miracles.
Paul's dynamic (at times ballistic) ministry style was a force to be reckoned with. The Judaizers, Peter, and many others were recipients of his straightforward arguing. His strategizing mind and spiritual heart are peerless among the saints. His ongoing conversion to Christ is the source of his great motivation.
By Paul's influence, Antioch becomes a major church and the missionary spirit take off in the early Church. His catechetical ministry was simply remarkable.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Allegro, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Biblical data on Paul's life in the first years after his conversion can be found only in Acts and Galatians. In the latter source, Paul affirms that the basis of his Gospel is Jesus Christ's personal revelation coupled with his rabbinical study. No individual, in Jerusalem or elsewhere, taught Paul the Christian way during these initial years. Parts of three years of his post-conversion life were spent in Arabia. Here he acquired some disciples, and taught the Gospel to all who were willing.
After returning from Arabia, he went up to Jerusalem to speak with Peter. The brethren quickly asked him to leave the city, considering him still to be a wanted man. Paul then returned to Silicia, the region of his birth for a lengthy period. By some reckonings, he may have spent eight or nine years in Silicia preaching a group of disciples and maturing. Though the Church has no specific knowledge of his activities during this period, one might consider this to be Paul's period of preparation for ministry.
Fourteen years after his conversion, he returned to Jerusalem. The motivation for his trip was likely to provide famine-relief from Antioch to Jerusalem. By this time, Paul had been preaching with Barnabas in Antioch for a year with wide acclaim. It is during this trip to Jerusalem that he finally received approval from the apostles to preach to the Gentiles.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Allegro, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
In His Providence, God equipped Paul with many of the skills that he would need to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, long before he fell off his horse on the road to Damascus. Just a few of these skills included a great Jewish memory, proficiency in Greek, and training in philosophy.
Physically, this man of medium height and medium build had a thorn in the flesh that he thrice asked to be removed.
It is likely that Paul is in his late 20s or early 30s when he first appears in the Book of Acts. If Stephen died in A.D. 34, Paul would have to have been born sometime between A.D. 1-8.
His primary instructor, Gamaliel was a master of the Hillel school of Pharisaic Judaism. This tolerant and learned teacher of the Law would later remark that if the Christians continued to flourish, it is proof that they have Divine commission.
Paul was not nearly as tolerant as his old teacher, but a firebrand who was extremely zealous--to the point of violence. Phillippians 3:4-7 shows his extreme Pharisaic piety, yet he considers it rubbish when compared with the Gospel.
The Tarsus-born lad grew up in Jerusalem amidst a culture of religious extremism and fastidiousness. He learned from the Pharisees that Jesus was certainly a fraud that taught false doctrines. He considered those who followed ''the Way'' to be Jewish heretics whose errors needed to be vehemently opposed. He spent roughly a year rounding up Christians for the high-ranking Pharisees.
While on his way to round up Christians in Damascus he was struck down by a light brighter than the Palestinian mid-day sun. The three accounts of his conversion each provide key details. Taken together, they depict arguably the most dramatic conversion in the history of the Church. He fasts for three days in repentance, and is soon Baptized to wash away his sins. Immediately Paul begins proclaiming the Gospel, though he is too controversial to be employed by the Apostles in Jerusalem.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 6 in G Minor - Andante, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Analyzing the years during which Passover fell on a Friday, Christ died either in A.D. 30 or A.D. 33. David Higbee tends to lean towards the latter. One of his main reasons is that Pilate would have still had a Roman protector in A.D. 30, thus his capitulation to the Jewish leaders in crucifying Christ indicates that the later date is more likely.
Using A.D. 33 as a bench-mark for the crucifixion places the stoning of Stephen at A.D. 34-35. His martyrdom marks the entrance of Paul into the Scriptures. His career as a Christian persecutor would not have lasted more than four years after this death.
Higbee will attempt to illustrate the mind and heart of God's missionary instrument, Saul of Tarsus, though it will not be in the style of a modern biography. His hands-on approach to the apostolic work was never fully recreated. The author of at least a third of the New Testament, his mark on the Church is unparalleled. Because few have Jewish-Christian origins, most all Christians are indebted to Paul, the apostles to the Gentiles.
The most controversial figure in the New Testament (excepting Jesus) seems to have been a short feisty fellow from Asia Minor. At first he is a Rabbinical student in Jerusalem who is focused and dramatically hateful towards his enemies. On the road to Damascus, Christ profoundly calls Him to repentance and discipleship.
Before his conversion, he advanced in Judaism above and beyond his peers. Acts 14 shows that he is mistaken for Hermes/Mercury, a short, quick, talkative man. The apocryphal works the Acts of Paul and Thecla may also reveal something of his physical appearance.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Vivace, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Certain items stand out from a review of the Corinthian correspondences. So dynamic was Paul's pastoring of this dynamic and diverse community that in an initial eighteen-month mission and a four-year period of intercession and periodic communication that it has left a mark on Christianity forever.
He encourages Christians to separate themselves from the world and its uncleanness. He references the words of Isaiah 52:11, ''Depart, depart, go out thence, touch nothing unclean [...] you who bear the vessels of the Lord'' and reminds them of their identity as vessels of the Lord, temples of the Holy Spirit.
Fellowship among brethren, agape love, interaction between those who are married, and sexual morality are just a few of the other topics he aptly addresses. He also exhorts generosity for the sake of the Church and for the poor. Dispensation in the spiritual life and the experience of the Spirit in relation to the law appear with the attributes of a genuine apostolic ministry are key sections.
Paul shows it is necessary to uphold the standards of God in a congregation. He will not cover up sins within the Church and will not tolerate sub-standard missionaries. Even more powerfully, he rejects those who adulterate the Word of God. His instruction will be forever remembered and demands serious study.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 6 in G Minor - Aria-Larghetto, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
The epistle provides a sort of living picture of an apostolic Church. In this particular letter Paul's passionate words rival only those in Galatians. After a summary of the early apostolic period, one can see that Paul suffered much before meeting the Corinthians.
A proper context for the Corinthian letter makes for a more comprehensive study. One will see that Paul's fiery ministry, the inclusion of Gentiles into the Church, and many other historical truths are significant factors into the problems that Paul addresses by his second epistle to the community.
He first enters Corinth during the Second Missionary journey, at a time when he was wishing to know only Christ and Him crucified. This city would perhaps seem an unlikely location for Christian mission. The city was renowned for its commerce, government, and sex-industry. Likely five times the population of Athens at this time, in this bawdy city that Paul meets Priscilla and Aquilla as well as a number of other leading members of the synagogue. Full of moxie, Paul sets up his ministerial center in the house next door to the synagogue, a move that loses him friends and alienates him from the Jewish population, to say the least. His ministry takes place over only 18 months.
Trouble with the Jews in Corinth lands Paul in court. Providentially, this shrewd proconsul of Achaia, Gallio, cuts the trial short and Paul escapes without harm. At that point he leaves Corinth and vows to arrive in Jerusalem by early the next year to celebrate the Passover. In April of A.D. 52, he fulfills his vow and then begins his Third Missionary journey, finally reaching Ephesus. It was at this time that Apollos enters the Corinthian Church, an eloquent man who only recently learned Christian doctrine of baptism.
While in Ephesus, Paul hears of the tumult within the Corinthian church, and writes his first letter to the Church. This letter is not to be confused with what we now refer to as the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and scholars continue to debate the exact content of this first letter.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 4 in D Minor - Aria-Affettuoso, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Paul's argument in the 11th chapter of Second Corinthians is similar to the one he uses in Galatians against the Judaizers. He writes ''if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.'' He then derides the so-called ''superlative apostles'' and boasts how he provided the gospel free-of-charge out of love for God. He juxtaposes his apostolic efforts with those who do not support themselves with their hands, but who claim to be apostles.
With wit and sarcasm, Paul continues to establish the merits of his ministry versus the failures of these ''superlative apostles.'' His argument then takes on a frantic tone: ''Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.'' He describes the terrible sufferings and beatings he has endured for the mission. Throughout his toil, he also contends with the daily anxiety for the welfare of the churches.
In chapter 12, he reluctantly reveals some of his spiritual revelations he has received. He also gives an account of how ''to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.''' He then resumes his defense of his ministry through the 13th chapter, one that has the utmost credibility. He then closes the letter with exhortations to repentance and holiness.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 4 in D Minor - Gavotta, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
A marked shift in topic and tone appears within the last four chapters of Second Corinthians. Regardless of whether or not these chapters were added to the epistle after its original composition, its apostolic authority is unquestioned.
These chapters are a reaction to the Corinthian situation: trouble making evangelists agitating the impressionable church. These missionaries establish themselves by targeting Paul's recent converts and casting doubt upon his credibility. Sarcastically calling them the "super apostles," these bold Christians preach a different gospel than his, one that has a rather Jewish bent. Although we undoubtedly know him as St. Paul, in his time, the apostle's authority was consistently doubted and ridden with turmoil.
The difficulties within the Corinthian church are expounded by the makeup of the congregation: a progressive, almost antinomian faction and a legalistic, Judaizing faction.
In the tenth chapter, he humbly asks, if not begs, the church to reflect on the genuineness and fruitfulness that has always accompanied his ministry. He hopes to reestablish order and will later single out those responsible for creating the troubles between these two groups. Paul will not be put to shame by those who criticize him and addresses their claims with bold strength. His speech was "not eloquent," but this does not necessarily mean he could not command an audience. In the rest of the chapter, he shows the failings of his foes and the strength of his own ministry.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 2 in E Minor - Gigha, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
Returning from his quick diversion to stress that God's people must be consecrated to the holy and sacred (cf. 6:14-7:1), Paul writes, ''I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. With all our affliction, I am overjoyed'' (7:4). He continues by accounting his troubles in Macedonia and how he received comfort from Titus and the Macedonian church. He recounts how he regreted, at the time, having to write his ''tearful letter'' to the Corinthians, but upon seeing how it moved them to repentance, he no longer has regrets (cf. v. 8). Paul masterfully illustrates how a healthy amount of grief which can lead to repentance, in contrast to the evil of worldly grief (cf. v. 9-11).
To get an insight into the mind of Paul, consider ''So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set at rest by you all'' (v. 12-13). He used to boast to Titus of his own band's apostolic efforts, and now he boasts in the fruit of Titus' apostolate. He repeats a previous statement to conclude the seventh chapter, ''I rejoice, because I have perfect confidence in you'' (v. 16). His confidence in them, however, will not be nearly as apparent throughout the rest of the epistle.
In the eighth chapter, he addresses the collection to Jerusalem and how the poor Macedonian Christians gave abundantly for the needy within the City of David. He commends the Corinthians to likewise give alms with a number of arguments and illustrations (cf. v. 7 ff.). He then explains that Titus will be arriving shortly to assist with this collection and exhorts them to generosity by adding, ''So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me, and arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction but as a willing gift. The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.'' (9:5-8). Paul promises that this almsgiving will benefit the saints, the giver, and the glory of God. The abundant charity of the first Christians is a worthy of emulation by Christ's faithful in every age.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 6 in G Minor - Minoetto I-III, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
An intensely personal epistle, Second Corinthians has a great deal to say about the Christian life, its requisite hope, and its standards. By itself, the law can only lead to condemnation, as God's holiness is inaccessible. Yet, the law is always preceded by God's promise of instruction and grace. After the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Christians gained access to the Father and the Gospel; Paul's entire life was devoted to spreading this Gospel. How devoted are American Catholics to this mission?
In chapter six, Paul concludes his argument that he has remained available, open, and honest with the Corinthians and that his ministry has the integrity of God (v. 11-13). Shifting entirely, he then focuses on the need for Christians to remain separate from secular men. Chapter seven, verse two resumes the thread of 6:11-13 seamlessly, leading scholars to speculate whether Paul's exhortation to leading lives of holiness and separation was inserted within the epistle at a later date.
To expound on the ''separation'' section of 6:14-7:1, these verses are sufficiently Pauline. Being unequally yoked refers to a Christian marrying an unbeliever; this directly follows the Levitical prohibition on mixed-breeds or plowing with an unequal yoke. As plowing a field is hard work, so is a marriage; God deigns that Christians bear the labor of marriage with another believer rather than with one who does not follow God's will. Paul's words here are strong: ''For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Be'lial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?'' (v. 14-15). Because the average citizen has some involvement in immorality, Paul does not instruct every Christian to become a hermit, but rather to avoid unnecessary interactions with those who are immoral. His approach is somewhat Pharisaical, except he hates immorality, not Gentiles.
Since Christians are the temple of the living God, this requires an extreme holiness (which is entirely a gift from God) and, thus, a lack of any defilement. Not a static location like the Temple Mount, the Christian body is the movable temple--Christ inside man, a holy glory. Not only is Christ in each individual, but He is present wherever two or more are gathered. For all these reasons, tolerating immorality or nonessential association with immoral people must always be avoided. Making allusions to the Old Testament he writes, ''Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty'' (v. 17-18). Christ has fulfilled many prophesies by making sons of His followers. ''For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith'' (Gal 3:26). Therefore, it is not the nature of the Christian to touch or associate with anything unclean.
Music: Boismortier's Sonata 4 in D Minor - Adagio, from the album 'Six Sonatas for Flute and Violin - Opus 51 - Boismortier' performed by Duo de Bois. www.magnatune.com
The all-holy glory of our Triune God is weighty and substantial, never ''fluffy.'' To illustrate this, one can look to Moses' veiled, radiant face after having seen God's glory. Paul takes up this image of veils and radiant glory in chapter three. He also contrasts the ''dispensation of death'' with the ''dispensation of the Spirit'' (v. 7-8). What is passing away contains an ephemeral glory, but what abides is situated in a glory that is eternal (cf. v. 11). In this, Paul does not wish to abolish the old covenant, but fulfill it with the Gospel of Christ.
He writes, ''Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor'' (v. 12) and ''Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom'' (v. 17). Powerfully, ''And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit'' (v. 18). He then explains that this ministry strives to be wholly centered on the glory of God, unveiled and holy.
As any faithful minister, Paul carries within his body the death of Jesus so that he might bring life to his flock.''For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison'' (v. 15). This invisible glory manifests itself in faith, hope and charity. Paul is impatient to move towards a more substantive epoch: eternity.
Music: Johann Gottfried Conradi's Prelude in D Minor, from the album Allemande, performed by Edward Martin. www.magnatune.com
Paul discusses two main ideas in chapter three. First, he discusses the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Second, he explains the principle of living in the spirit.
The dynamic church of Corinth contains bona fide Christians with numerous spiritual gifts, however troublesome they may be for Paul. Analyzing his interaction with the community illuminates at least twelve items worthy of reflection:
A minister must be: sincere, faithful and holy as God is holy; a firm leader without being a tyrant; willing to serve sacrificially; ever see his parishioners as the children of God; one who cares and loves sincerely like a good parent loves his child; one who exhibits transparent sincerity in all respects; one who is able to be true to his word; one who speaks the truth in love; one who is willing to appropriately confront the difficulties with people; one who never gives up on the responsibilities of his divine orders; one who does not allow his integrity to be derided by gossip or dissenters; one who does not change or diminish the Word of God for any reason.
The vocation of a pastor is far more than a 9-5 job, but a holy order that demands no less than his entire life. Further, Christians who continue to accept weak or lazy leadership from their ministers are negligent, cheating themselves and the larger Church from receiving true pastors.
Chapter three begins with Paul explaining that he has no need to provide a letter of his credentials, for ''You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your [our] hearts, to be known and read by all men and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.'' (v. 2-3). One does well to confer this with the covenental prophesies of Jeremiah 31:31 and Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26. God's grace alone will enable one to keep a covenant.
Paul knows that he must minister as purely as Christ does and that it is only through grace that he can do this. His confidence in and reliance on the Spirit of the Living God is striking.
The New Testament is the Word of God, but Paul knows that ''the written code [by itself] kills, but the Spirit gives life'' (v. 6) because knowledge of God is not sufficient to save unless it is lived through love, worship, and witness. The content of the Law combined with the sacraments of Jesus Christ is the abundant channel of grace offered to the modern Christians, far more abundant than those who lived only under the Old Covenant.
Lest one think that Paul is an antinomian, he says ''the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good'' (Rom 7:12). Inasmuch as the law explicates God, it is worthwhile, but it is not strong enough to carry one to salvation unless it is accompanied by a life in the Holy Spirit.
Music: Gerard Satamian's Chansons sans paroles op. 2 Melodie printaniere, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Note: When this episode was posted there was a problem with duplicate audio. If your file is 61 minutes long instead of the proper 51 minute length, either skip to 9:39 to begin or re-download the corrected file.
Paul transitions from the first to the second chapter of Second Corinthians by finalizing his account of the pastoral role he has as an apostle. Masterfully illustrated by his actions, the Godly pastor is one who ever acts with the mind, heart and soul of Christ Himself. Even while conducting administrative endeavors like payroll and paperwork, a pastor of God keeps the divine purpose of his life in mind. True pastors neither lord their power over a flock nor negligently allow their flock to go astray. One does well to be mindful of the many tears and toils Paul endured for his beloved congregations, but also bear in mind his words "If anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure--not to put it too severely--to you all" (v. 5).
The way Paul addresses pastoral issues seems wholly superior to the modern approach seen in many Catholic parishes: the former is the highest outpouring of earnest love and patient instruction, while the latter tends to be predominantly bureaucratic and lacking a personal touch. After dealing with a pastoral problem, Paul goes further to completely eradicates the source so that Satan may not have a foothold.
He writes, ''For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life'' (v. 15-16). Paul then contrasts himself with those whom he calls ''peddlers'' or ''swindlers'' of God's word. Never watering down or altering the message of the Gospel, his words indict all types of unworthy ministry and those who participate in it. Truly, any religious minister who does not tremble before the Word of God is a sham and will suffer harshly under the judgment of God.
Music: Gerard Satamian's Chansons sans paroles op. 2 Serenade, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Though the constitution of the Church cannot change, the Corinthian church is extraordinarily different than the average American parish. An community of converts founded by Paul himself, the factionalism among those Christians in this multicultural trade hub presented the apostle, Timothy, and Titus with a series of daunting pastoral challenges.
The first chapter of Second Corinthians contains many doctrinal nuggets amidst Paul's response to chaotic situations. One should note contextually that Paul wrote a total of four letters to the Corinthian Church. Additionally, one must bear in mind that Paul traveled north to the Troas in order to determine the outcome of Titus' mission to Corinth.
Paul's religious language is not rhetoric, it is the truth expressed through tough love. He explains his reason for the delay in coming to the Corinthian church by way of Macedonia. Seeking to establish his credibility through precise, direct language that is neither flowery nor verbose (at least not for one with a rabbinical education). Although heresy, wild immorality and revolt are almost certainly not the issues Paul addresses here, he is nonetheless a father addressing important issues within his family. He addresses them with a clear conscience, reminding them that he is proud of them and never toiled among them for selfish reasons, perhaps in response to criticisms laid against him.
Paul did not change his mind and postpone his visit to Corinth for any selfish or mixed motives. He knows that the promises of God are absolute and that he who serves Him must have the same integrity. Never one to vacillate on ‘’yes and no,’’ his ‘’yes’’ holds the full weight of an ‘’Amen’’ before God Himself.
Finalizing his argument of his apostolic credibility, he states, ‘’But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me--it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith’’ (v. 21-24).
Music: Gerard Satamian's Chansons sans paroles op. 2 Berceuse, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul establishes both his apostolic leadership and the Church's universality in the first verse of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. What he writes to Corinth will be read not only in that city, but also in the various churches throughout Achaia.
The second item within the epistle is a prayer of thanksgiving and an exposition of physical suffering, the comforts Christ provides, and the comfort and compassion present among Christians. Genuine Christian life is one of plentiful crosses and frequent tribulations, for these sufferings are a requisite for entrance into the Kingdom (cf. Mark 8:35, Acts 14:22, 1 Pt 5:9). Suffering conforms one to the life of Christ more than any other spiritual exercise and deepens the bonds of true fellowship within the Church.
Using testimony from his apostolic travels, he reveals the comfort of Christ in the midst of extreme trial by stating, ''For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.'' (v. 8-9). Possibly the riot in Ephesus (cf. Acts 19:24 ff.), Paul's response to the event here mentioned is instructive for every reader.
Second Corinthians is an exceedingly noteworthy epistle that is often overlooked or merely skimmed. If the spiritual implications of this letter do not challenge the Christian, it is likely he is not reading the text with any proper, prayerful depth.
Music: Gerard Satamian's Chansons sans paroles op. 2 Elegie, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
In order to properly understand Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthian Church, one must bear in mind a number of items. Chronologically, it is likely that the Second epistle was written just months after the First. An exceedingly intriguing epistle, it showcases Paul's life and personality in a way unparalleled among his other works.
One can only imagine the rapped attention with which the Corinthian Church listened to Paul's second letter. He divides his message into three parts after a brief introduction: he covers a myriad of points in the first, the topic of collections for the widows and orphans of Jerusalem in the second, and the presence of false Apostles in the third.
Some scholars question whether or not Paul composed this epistle as a united document, or if it is a composite of two separate epistles. Their suppositions are in response to the marked differences in tone that exists between the first nine and the last four chapters, although these arguments may not be as strong as some contemporary Biblical scholarship would have one believe.
Music: Gerard Satamian's Chansons sans paroles op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com
Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians contains a number of key themes that a reader might overlook.
The fact that so few lay Catholics in America deliberately choose celibacy is a sign of a worldly church. Marriage was, is, and will always be a wonderful vocation, but many early lay Christians chose celibacy as an alternative to marriage, rather than simply a preparation for it. Too frequently the consecrated life is seen as a calling reserved for clergy and religious.
Paul exhorts the Corinthians not to associate with immoral men who claim to be Christian. He knows that Christians ought to judge the bad that is among their community (Cf. 5:13). American contemporary Catholicism is so far removed from Paul's pastoral spirit that those who seek significant reforms must be excruciatingly prudent in their judgments and actions. The duty of a Christian is to be his brother's keeper, but never a busybody.
Charismatic gifts are prevalent within Acts and First Corinthians. These gifts are always at God's disposal and proper spiritual discernment is always a requisite. One must never forget that the greatest of gifts is love.
One must not contextually dismiss Paul's views on women and sexuality as irrelevant to this age. He ever seeks to have men and women compliment one another properly and avoid unnecessary contesting of leadership. One must never forget Paul's exhortation in the Epistle to the Ephesians, ''Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ'' (5:21). It is a tragedy of our age that self-assertion is the new golden rule.
Music: Moritz Moszkowski's 4 Moments Musicaux Op. 84 - Maestoso, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
Paul's great pastoral epistle is especially instructive for the Church in modern America.
Written to a Church often beset by infighting, immorality, and individualism, the timeless messages of forbearance, freedom from sin, and fellowship are a much-needed salve.
These final inquiries into First Corinthians revisit the issues of how bad the Corinthian Church really was, whether our time is any worse than other times in history, and the Church's current practice on women's veils.
Music: Moritz Moszkowski's 4 Moments Musicaux Op. 84 - Moderato e grazioso, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
In chapter one, Paul introduces himself as an encouraging father. Chapter two shows a more corrective side, outlining the immaturity of the Corinthian community. He highlights their faults even more centrally throughout chapter three. By the end of the letter, he establishes himself as an honorable father who will ever speak honestly to his children, correcting faults when necessary.
In chapter 16, he says, ''I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer'' (v. 16). He cites Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus as examples of holiness and leadership within the Church.
He closes the letter with, ''I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love will be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen'' (v. 21-24). When Paul says ''If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed,'' he instructs the Church not to tolerate immorality and godlessness.
Ever present throughout this letter is the mind and personality of St. Paul. The letter contains vivid and notable snapshots of the Church that hosted the great missionary-pastor for 18 months, and one can never reach the bottom of its depths. The letter's contents compel the reader to spiritual progress as well as discipleship, service and love. It also demands the resolution of interpersonal disputes and the establishment of the highest standards of sexual morality. The role of women, spiritual gifts and the nature of the Eucharist all have profound places in this letter. Although the letter's chapters build into a sort of crescendo of pastoral correction, Paul always writes with great and genuine love.
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff's 6 Moments Musicaux Op. 16 - Andantino, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
This chapter describes a wide-spread collection of funds for the Church in Jerusalem. Giving sacrificially for Christ - who gave Himself for the human race - was ever on the mind of these early Christians who always gave well beyond the 10% tithing requirement. Tithe money never paid for ecclesial luxuries, but for pressing needs like furthering effective missionary activity and sustaining widows and orphans. The offering described in this chapter is a sort of precursor to what we now know as Peter's Pence; Paul and many young men from the various churches throughout Christendom would later carry their offerings to Jerusalem to lay them at the feet of the apostles. Paul also presents the Gentile Christians to the Lord in the Temple, an act which fulfills a prophesy from Isaiah 60 but incites a riot and leaves him imprisoned.
Paul cannot leave his post in Ephesus until Pentecost, but hopes to return to the Corinthians after passing through Macedonia (cf. v. 5-9). He urges the church to ''Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love'' (13-14).
Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians is not a manual of Christian doctrine or rubrics but a personal letter to a specific church with particular predicaments.
Extremely personal, the letter is a riveting apostolic work that arises from love and compels the properly disposed reader to recollect and repent. Although one may not be privy to all the details of the particular Corinthian situation, studying this letter is always profitable. Although focused study is necessary to undermine the full weight of this letter, one's study must never remain purely intellectual but must penetrate to one's spirituality and daily life.
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff's 6 Moments Musicaux Op. 16 - Andantino, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
Out study continues with the great Resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 23. Christ is the Messiah whose reign must continue until he has triumphed, when eternity begins (cf. v. 23-27). The Father is the font of divinity without having any chronological or hierarchical priority over Jesus Christ. A close reading of this chapter will reveal that there was no "generic God-substance" that created Christ, but rather the one God, a personal moral being who is all-powerful and who eternally begets the Son.
Note that verse 29 does not speak to the common Mormon practice of Baptizing the Dead, and is the only reference of any such a baptismal practice in the Bible.
Paul knows that one is ruined by the bad company he keeps (v. 33), and he mentions it within this chapter for the good of the Church. He chastises them by saying "Come to your right mind and sin no more" (v. 34).
He answers a number of the Corinthians' questions on the resurrection of the dead in verses 35-44. He writes, "Just as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable" (v. 49-50). In this, he states that all who are raised to heaven will be changed, a change that occurs in the blink of an eye. He concludes the chapter by stating "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (v. 58).
One must never forget that the goal of the Christian life is to remain with the Lord in heaven. With this perspective, one has a life-changing motivation.
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff's 6 Moments Musicaux Op. 16 - Andante cantabile, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
Sometimes termed "the great Resurrection chapter," 1 Corinthians 15 accounts just that and more. Certain members of the Corinthian Church, perhaps because of a Greek heritage that often disparages the flesh, take issue with Jesus' resurrection. From the initial verse, Paul affirms that the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel.
He expresses that Christ died for our sins and rose to give us eternal life, appearing to many (v 2-6). Note that Cephas [Peter] is mentioned specifically as well as being included in those "twelve" apostles who witnessed Him (v 5). Paul uses the terms "the twelve" and "the apostles" as two separate categories (v 7). These precise groupings of witnesses serve help establish facts, adding credibility to Paul's argument.
It was only the resurrected Christ who dramatically changed Paul from the Church's greatest persecutor into one of its chief workers. Paul reminds them that a Christian's resurrection will be one of both the spirit and the body, urging them to never overlook the resurrection of the body on the last day. He writes in response to those who question the resurrection of the body, "If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (v 16-17).
Christ has trampled upon death through the resurrection and lifts believers from the dead and from sin. By thinking deeply about heaven and the resurrection of the dead, Christians remain focused on their final end throughout the battle against sin.
Music: Moritz Moszkowski's 3 Moments Musicaux Op. 7 - Allegramente, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
Chapter 13 of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians begins with Paul's address to those who speak in tongues. Unless love is the controlling virtue in one's life, a spectacular faith, a powerful prophetic message or even the gift of tongues are of no value (cf. v. 1-3). He infers that love and the peace of Christ are to ever remain the arbiters among disputing peoples.
Characterizing love, he notes how it is "patient and kind," neither jealous or boastful; nor arrogant or rude; and never insisting on its own way (cf. v. 4-6). Further, love "does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things [without ever being wishy-washy], hopes all things, endures all things. [Divine] Love never ends" (v. 7-8). Paul knows that divine love does not come naturally to humans; rather, it is always a gift of purely supernatural grace.
He writes, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (v. 10-12). Our American connotation of "love" pales in comparison to the love expressed through deeds of self-sacrifice that Paul speaks of in this chapter.
He again addresses the gifts of tongues in Chapter 14. He places the gift of prophesy as more valuable than the gift of tongues, except in instances where the tongue is interpreted, because prophesies edify the whole church (cf. v. 5). If all spiritual gifts are given for the common good, he observes that those who speak in tongues should speak in intelligible tongues and pray for their tongue's interpretation (cf. v. 7-10). Note that the interpretation of tongues does not mean a translation, for interpretations always convey a spiritual message beyond the jots and tittles of any message. When in church, Paul would rather "speak five words with [his] mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue" (v. 19).
He heightens his tone by urging the Corinthians to maturity and wisdom (cf. v. 20). To understand the larger context of his powerful statement in verse 22, "Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers," one must thoroughly digest Isaiah 28. He concludes the chapter by masterfully instructing his wayward church on the proper use of tongues, prophesy and silence in their worship and communal life.
Music: Moritz Moszkowski's 4 Moments Musicaux Op. 84 - Animato ma non troppo, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
Paul addresses spiritual gifts in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians. He knows the Church does not realize their low level of spiritual maturity; but their arrogant, impatient and factious ways indict them. So misguided is this Church that they act against the teachings of both Paul and the Council of Jerusalem. This chapter showcases him again pleading with the people like they are close family members.
He knows that the Corinthians have a good foundation of catechesis, but that many are either practicing dead-letter religion or are misappropriating their gifts. He addresses this by reiterating that all who are of Christ receive spiritual gifts and they must be exercised for the common good. A variety of gifts among individuals in a community provide the essential elements of Christian life. He lists numerous gifts, but "all [...] are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who appropriations to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (v 11-12). Paul's language makes one question whether this factious Church was marginalizing individuals who had particular spiritual gifts as less important than those with other gifts. He stresses the equality of the people of God, for "the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable" (v. 22). Because the members of the Corinthian Church are one body, Paul chastises them for their disunity and urges them to love one another.
A loving, family life is so characteristic of genuine Christian life, as expressed in the thirteenth chapter. Sadly, this type of love is so uncharacteristic of modern Catholicism in America. Paul exhorts the Corinthian Church to this love and what love is and what it is not (cf. v. 4-8). He also makes it clear that they must all love more genuinely.
Music: Moritz Moszkowski's 3 Moments Musicaux Op. 7 - Tranquillo e semplice, from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
The character of Paul's language changes distinctly in Chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians as he attempts to reassert his role as an apostle. Some among the brethren of Corinth felt apostles would not need to work to support themselves, and viewed his working to support his ministry as a demerit on his authority. He responds by saying "I [am an apostle] to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord" (v 2). He continues by asserting the rights of an apostle through a series of rhetorical questions.
Using sound rabbinical arguments, he asserts that God allows the workers to partake of the fruit of their labor (Cf. v. 8-12). These statements are not Paul's attempt to amass material gains, but assert his authority as an apostle. As he continues, his temper begins to reveal itself in the verbiage (Cf. v 14). He hits on the cornerstone of his argument when he states "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" and "What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel" (v 16, 18). Always trying to save as many souls as possible he reflects how he "became all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (v 23). He closes the chapter with a lively exhortation that the Corinthians strive for holiness through self-restraint and exertion like an athlete strives for victory (Cf. v 24-27).
Returning to his previous language-style in Chapter 10, he uses the example of their Jewish forefathers to instruct the troubled church. After illustrating the sacramental gifts that the Israelites received from God he warns the people not to partake unworthily or without gratitude, lest they die like many of the Israelites. He ever attempting to bring the conceited Corinthians to greater holiness, he provides hope against temptation by stating "God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (v 13).
Returning to his railing against idolatry, he asks "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?" so that he may come to his eucharistic theology "The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (v 16). This is to establish that one cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, and that meat sacrificed to idols is inherently demonic.
He instructs the Judaizers by saying "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful" (v 23). He also allows that "if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question" except it becomes clear that this meat was sacrificed to an idol (v 27).
Finally, in the beginning of Chapter 11, Paul addresses the issue of women's head coverings.
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff's 6 Moments Musicaux Op. 16 - Adagio sostenuto from the album Moments Musicaux, performed by Elizabeth Wolff. www.magnatune.com
The beginning of an extremely challenging portion of Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 8 edges towards discussing liberty and constraints. Chapters 8-11 showcase Paul's pastoral nature, for rather than writing a polemic list of do's and don't's to a church of diverse believers with questionable devotion, he has devised an all-embracing construct for Christian life, worship and the spiritual realm. The implications of these chapters are more radical than the sexual ideals put forth in chapters 6-7.
The issues of enforcing ecclesial norms plagued the Corinthian Church just as it plagues the Catholic Church in America. One central issue emerges: eating meat sacrificed to idols. Rather than burn or discard meat used for ritual purposes, pagan temples and local markets sold vast supplies of cheap, edible meat. It was common in Corinthian culture for one to eat his meal right at the temple, and the vast quantity of meat made these temples a sort of banquet hall for trade guilds; in either case these affairs were tainted with pagan idolatry.
Paul prepares the groundwork for his argument by beginning chapter 8 very carefully; writing across the Aegean Sea to a church with which he has a deep spiritual bond, he is like a careful parent not trying to lose control of rebellious teenagers. As an Old Testament scholar, he knows the need to eradicate idolatry among God's people. Certain Corinthian Christians had long argued it was licit to eat meat sacrificed to idols, since they knew there was only one true God, but the early Church's harsh treatment of those who burned incense to the Roman gods provides a proper precedent against such a practice. Nevertheless, the Corinthian Church was in turmoil over this issue, dividing families and splitting the church.
For a bit of history, the Christian faith came to Corinth after the Council of Jerusalem which insisted that uncircumcised Gentiles refrain from eating meat with blood in it or that had been strangled, avoiding all things associated with idols and all forms of sexual immorality. Blood was so stringently avoided primarily because of God's commandment to Noah and his sons, not Israelites, of whom we are all descendants. Now, the Corinthians bristle at Paul's authority and perceived "legalism" in regards to meat sacrificed to idols.
He offers a valuable lesson, "'all of us possess knowledge'. 'Knowledge [without love] puffs up, but love builds up'" (8:1). After discussing love and knowledge, he concedes that "although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords' -- yet, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ" (v 5-6). He follows with "not all possess this knowledge. But some, through being hitherto accustomed to idols, eat food as really offered to an idol" (v 7). The mature Christians must bear patiently with their co-religionists who do not possess the knowledge in verses 5 and 6; the alternative is to sin against Christ (Cf. v. 12). He then finishes the chapter by edging up to a prohibition on eating meat sacrificed to idols which he will state definitively in chapter 10.
As an aside, when Paul says "all things are lawful," he is not being an antinomian [law-abolisher], but instead referring to those who have the full life of Christ and never act except in accord God's perfect will. This statement is also an attempt to warm those who respond negatively to legalism to his pastoring.
Music: La Cornara from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul addresses another set of issues that rend unity among the Corinthian Church. Brothers are regularly asking secular magistrates to settle their disputes (cf. v. 1-2). The actions of these neophytes show they place self-assertion before the virtues of Christian sacrifice, prudence and charity. Paul informs them that choosing to stand before worldly authorities to settle these matters is a clear sign of their spiritual decay (cf. v. 4-6).
These brothers "wrong and defraud" their "own brethren" and are deceiving themselves (v. 8). He warns them that "the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom" of God and that "neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts [the original Greek here lists two separate terms to include homosexual offenders and those who freely allow themselves to be homosexually offended], nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 9-11). Paul knows that some of the Corinthians were previously chained to the sins listed above, and urges them to remember that they have been "washed," "sanctified," and "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (v. 11).
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be enslaved by anything [...] the body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.'" When Paul says this, he makes a masterful distinction between function and purpose. Any function of the body – which will be resurrected on the last day – must never lead one to forget that their bodies are "members of Christ" (v. 15). Violations of one's body are offenses against that body and the person and purpose of Christ. If the purpose of human sexuality is that "the two shall become one flesh," then the function of uniting with a prostitute is an extreme aberration (cf. v. 16). There can be nothing immoral within Christians because they are, at the core, of Christ's body.
In Chapter 7, Paul answers the questions posed him by the Corinthian Church. He begins "It is well for a man not to touch a woman" (v. 1). Knowing that men are weak and tempted to immorality, he writes that "each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" when necessary (v. 2).
Neither commanding nor legislating the conjugal union between marital couples, he seeks to alleviate selfishness and other problems relating to intimacy (v. 3-5). He wishes "that all were as I myself am [celibate]. But each has his own special gift from God" (v. 7). He establishes that divorce and remarriage should not be commonplace among the Christian Church (v. 8 ff.).
He uses Jewish regulatory language to describe the ramifications of a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever (v 10 ff.). He writes, "the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy" (v. 14). Note that the "consecration" he speaks of here does not refer to a salvific grace, but instead to that grace which allows such a couple to live under the same roof and raise legitimate children who are able to be baptized.
Paul writes, "if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace," but he does not here advise the believer to remarriage (v. 15). Generally, he instructs the people to avail themselves of every opportunities live the fullest Christian life possible without compelling slaves, married men and others to unnecessarily disrupt their state in life (v. 20 ff.).
He then offers advice similar to that given in Matthew 19, where Jesus advises those who are able to become eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom to do so. He explicates Christ's message in greater detail, saying "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin [...] Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that" (v. 27-28).
His urge that "those who have wives live as though they had none," is not a call for universal celibacy within marriage, but instead a warning against living a married life as an ordinary man, but as a fully integrated Christian (v. 29).
A man with a family has more responsibilities than the unmarried man, and meeting the demands of the kingdom may be more difficult. Paul stresses that he wishes "not to lay any restraint upon [the Corinthians], but to promote good order and to secure [their] undivided devotion to the Lord" (v 35). He concludes "he who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better" (v. 38).
Music: Gagliarda Terza from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
1 Corinthians 5 reveals a distinct shift in the epistle, for here Paul begins to address the scandal of a Corinthian Christian living with his father's wife (v 1). Such an action is forbidden in Torah, prohibited in Roman law, and is in clear contradistinction with the call of Christ; it should have long been addressed by the Corinthian leaders, and Paul upbraids these leaders for their negligence. It is clear that this immoral person is adamantly persisting in his sin and shows no sign of leaving the church.
To this, Paul demands, "Let him who has done this be removed from among you" with all his apostolic authority, for "though absent in body I am present in spirit [when you are assembled together], and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing ... with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (v 2-3, 5). Thus a total excommunication removes him completely from the protective umbrella of God's Church until he bears the fruit of genuine repentance. One should note that men can regularly repent from sexual sin through grace; Paul's terrifying excommunication is a deliberate attempt to dissuade these sins.
Throughout the entire scandal, the Corinthians have been boasting of their spiritual acumen (cf v 6). He reminds them that as "a little leaven leavens the whole lump," unfettered evil quickly spreads throughout the Church. Referencing the festival of deliverance, the Passover, he writes "let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (v 8).
Paul knows that greed, robbery and idolatry are in the world, but demands that Christians not associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of egregious immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler (slanderer), drunkard or robber (v 11). His attempt is to raise the standards of holiness for Christians, never to execute vindication or to mete out punishment on non-Christians for immorality. When he says they are "not even to eat with such a one," he challenges the Corinthian Church to address grave sin for the good of the whole body, even if doing so painfully breaks the norms of social etiquette. Rather than tolerate evils that will poison the flock, Christians must "Drive out the wicked person from among you" (v 12). One will best do this through frequent examination of conscience and by speaking the truth in love.
Music: Avanti Il Quarto Brando from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
Paul's indictment of the Corinthian Church reaches new depths in 1 Cor 3:17 as he warns against troublemakers within the Church, "And if anyone destroys God's temple [the Body of Christ], God will destroy him." He continues, "Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness,' and again, 'the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile'" (v 18-19). Paul then upbraids the Corinthians for not acting as those who are Christ's possession (cf v 22-22).
A strong leader, Paul then asks the people to examine his conduct for blame or error, professing a clean conscience (cf 4:3-5a). Knowing that it is the Lord alone who will judge, he stresses that the Christian must never pass final judgment on another in his own heart. Note, however, that the Paul's Epistles frequently call on the Christian to judge between right deeds and wrong deeds.
In response to the boastful ways of the Corinthians, he asks "What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?" (v 7). After being blessed with every spiritual gift in the heavens, they are acting like sniveling misers. He calls them to be what they really are, "a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men" (v 9).
Paul teaches that Christians are "fools for Christ's sake" and thereby possess true wisdom (v 10, cf 3:18). Citing the good example of the Apostolic band, he states "we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world ... I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children ... For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me" (v 12-16).
Paul so steadfastly lives in Christ and Him crucified that he is able to overturn all pride, arrogance, factionalism. He warns the Corinthians he "will come to [them] soon" to pastor those who speak with arrogance and remind them that "the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power" (v 18-19). He forcefully concludes the fourth chapter by asking "What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?" (v 21).
Music: La Maltese from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
Christianity must ever remain mission-minded, seeking to save souls, lest it lose its saltiness. Clear standards and expectations of progress are necessary and reasonable in order to achieve practical gains. Spreading the Gospel must always come before seeking self-fulfillment and, non-coincidentally, those who lovingly spread the Gospel will experience the most fulfillment.
All Christians must beware not to squander the gifts they have received or neglect the responsibilities that come with their faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is God's gift to the believer and He provides additional gifts in order that one might cooperate with Him, repent, genuinely love Him and evangelize.
The Corinthian Church contains individuals at various stages of immaturity, whereas a vibrant Christian community contains a mixture of mature veterans and immature new-comers. After accepting the gift of salvation and numerous spiritual charisms, Paul upbraids the Corinthians for letting let the cares of the world distract them from living a mission-minded faith. Additionally, they have not put to death the desires of their fleshly minds and act like busybodies who point fingers at others but never examine their own lives. Paul knows that these men are not wholly un-spiritual, but are spiritual men acting upon the desires of their flesh. In contrast, a genuine Christian spirituality is a life lived in regular experience with the Holy Spirit.
He writes, "But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?" (1 Cor 3:1-3) Wrapping themselves in their human leaders Paul and Apollos, they withhold honor due only to God who alone provides the Christian's growth (cf v 4). Paul understands that he is but a humble servant who thankfully responds well to God's grace by grace. Mindful that no one can earn his salvation, he knows laborers for the Kingdom will receive wages according to their works (cf v 8).
Jesus Christ Himself is the only foundation upon which the Church can be built (cf v 13, Eph 4, 1 Pet). To the extend they do this, the work of the Christian will be made manifest on the Day of Judgment (cf v 14-15). The man whose work is unworthy and is "burned up" will "suffer loss, though he himself will be saved" after a period of purgation (v 15). All Christians must see themselves as they truly are and fess up to their sins, whether this revelation occur in this world or in purgatory.
Music: La Zabarella from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
After a difficult mission in Athens, Paul comes to the Corinthians not with a lofty intellectual message, but having "decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2). Despite suffering from "weakness and in much fear and trembling," he successfully ministered to the Corinthians in "demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (v 3, 4). His intent was "that [their] faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (v 5).
Paul brings wisdom to those mature Corinthians, but this wisdom is a "secret and hidden wisdom of God" that "none of the rules of this age" could understand (v 6, 7).
Referencing Isaiah, Paul states "no eyes has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (v 9-10). God's ways are unsearchable, except to that man to whom "God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (v 10).
Speaking of his own ministry, he states "we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit" (v 12-13).
He contrasts the "unspiritual," natural man with the spiritual man, the latter of which "judges [discerns] all things, but is himself to be judged [discerned] by no one" (cf. 14, 15). In other words, the unspiritual man cannot understand the reasoning of the spiritual man. For no one can know the mind of the Lord unless He gives his sons "the mind of Christ" (cf. v 16).
Paul addresses the men of Corinth as "men of the flesh, as babes in Christ," feeding them with "milk, not solid food" (3:1-2). He writes, "For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?" (v 3).
Modern Christians do well to discern the extent that they behave like ordinary men and discarding jealously and selfishness for the mind of Christ. Without a genuine spirituality, Christians will not be ready for solid food, but will remain among those of the flesh.
Sorry for the audio quality this week, this was digitized off of a cassette tape. Everything will be back to normal in the next episode.
Music: La Moneverda from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
A Christian must strive to achieve worthy goals and remain "mission-minded" if he is to live fully for the Kingdom. Whenever a Christian approaches the First Epistle to the Corinthians as merely a devotional book, like some sort of spiritual fodder, he will miss the entire point. St. Paul was always strategic in his plans and actions in order to hasten the mission; similarly, modern Christians are called to act with prayer, forethought and sound execution.
Always working from bases in urban centers, Paul would begin his ministry with the Jews, toiling to establish a base of followers from their ranks and those of the "God-fearers," religious Gentiles in close association with the Jews. Paul efficiently evangelized these God-fearers, offering them a monotheistic religion that did not require circumcision.
Paul never remained long in any one urban center, for his aggressive, often polemic, ministry made him many enemies. After rejection from one community, he would immediately create a new base in another city. He would then labor to coach his disciples in close discourse and worked day and night, meeting the people where they were; further, he often worked a trade to support himself simultaneously to carrying out his apostolic ministry.
As soon as Paul established a sustainable base in one community, he hastened to a new urban center to repeat the process. God appointed him to preach the gospel, a mission he ceaselessly carried out. Within one generation, his ministry of church-planting and letter-writing established a foundation in the Greco-Roman world that affected all subsequent Christian history. Paul's carefully-planned strategy of evangelization clearly contrasts the disorganized and way many modern Christians seek to spread faith. If Christians steadfastly imitate his worthy example their ministries will bear some of the same fruit.
Music: La Savorgnana from the album Italian Music of the 17th Century, performed by Altri Stromenti. www.magnatune.com
(Sorry for the audio quality this week, this was digitized off of a cassette tape.)
Acts 18 describes how Christianity came to Corinth. After a difficult sojourn in Athens, Paul arrived in Corinth alone. Soon he met a Jew named Aquilla and his wife Priscilla, with whom he shared the same trade, and began persuading Jews and Greeks in the synagogues to follow Christ. The Scriptures account that the Jews quickly "opposed and reviled” both Paul and his ministry (v 5-6). In response, he "shook out his garments and said to them, 'Your blood be upon your heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles'" (v 6).
After departing from the synagogue, he began a highly contentious form of evangelization to the Gentiles and God-fearers, establishing his base in the house "next door" to the synagogue (v 7). God protected Paul's oft-threatened ministry in Corinth, saying to him in a night vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man shall attack you to harm you; for I have many people in this city" (v 9-11). After Gallio became proconsul of Achaia (roughly modern Greece), the Jews unite to accuse Paul of spreading an illicit religion (cf v 12-13). Gallio refuses to be the judge of such debate, forcibly ejecting the Jews from his court (cf v 14-15). Tension between Jews and Gentiles is excruciatingly high in Corinth, as expressed by the small riot that ensues (cf v 16-17).
Paul later wrote an epistle to “the church of God which is at Corinth," (1 Cor 1:1-2). Here he stresses the presence of a universal (i.e., catholic) Church with local manifestations. In the Greek, "the church of God which is at Corinth" does not refer to a local assembly, but rather to a universal church which is represented in Corinth. It is important to note that Christians derive the term for church, ecclesia, from the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), where the entire Hebrew people is called the ecclesia of Israel, an assembly of millions. Ecclesia never refers to just a local community in the Septuagint.
Early in the epistle, Paul links Jesus Christ to the grace which the Corinthians have received (cf v 4). In spite of having received the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and other spiritual gifts, however, Paul indicts them for misusing these gifts to further theological causes in a mean-spirited manner (cf v 5). The task of a Christian is to grow in holiness, to love one another and to evangelize, never to be contentious or self-seeking.
Music: Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
An industrial hub and commercial center on an Isthmus, the city of Corinth contained many merchants and working-class types; many Roman army veterans retired to Corinth after their tour of duty. A conglomeration of Latins, Greeks, Syrians and Jews, it was the capital of the entire Roman province of the Achaia, roughly the boundary of the modern Greek state. Archaeological excavations have revealed entire streets of bars and brothels in the city. Corinth was notorious for its perverse sexual immorality.
Among all Churches recorded in the New Testament, the church at Corinth most parallels the state of the modern Church in America: it contained a diverse group of individuals living in tumult: Jewish and Gentile converts with legalistic leanings, a more liberal contingent and charismatic groups on both ends of the spectrum. Among the believers arose sex scandals, debates over the place of women in worship and intense discussions regarding loyalty to the Apostolic tradition. So embittered were the factions that existed in the Church towards another group that when a representative of one group would start to address the congregation, a member of another party would begin speaking in tongues to drown them out.
While Paul was staying in Ephesus, several prominent men of the Corinthian community sought out Paul's response on several matters. Obliging their request, Paul writes the First Epistle to the Corinthians in late spring of A.D. 55. A young Timothy most likely delivered Paul's letter to this first Century church in A.D. 55-57. Though they had received catechetical instruction from Paul himself over the course of 18 months, the Corinthians received neither Timothy nor the Epistle with high regard. Their tepid response raises questions as to how Christian the Corinthians actually were, and their turmoil speaks to the fact that they had not fully reformed their bawdy ways. Many members of the Corinthian church simply did not respect Paul as one who carried Apostolic authority.
Music: Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz, J. 277 performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Paul uses stark language in Galatians 6 to indict both legalists and antinomians: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (v 7). While all in the Galatian assembly have some concern for honoring God, this verse makes a distinctions between those who "go through the motions," those who practice self-justification, and those true Christians who offer themselves entirely to God and live justly.
Speaking to Christians with a weakening resolve, Paul says "Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart" (v 9). He continues, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith" (v 10).
Verses 11-18 seek to reiterate and summarize the entire epistle, which Paul writes with large letters in his own hand for emphasis (v 11). He contrasts the spirit (the true Gospel) with the flesh (Gentile circumcision and a doctrine of self-justification). He reveals those worldly men who want to "make a good showing in the flesh...only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ" (v 12). Consistently referring to the saving power of the cross, he says "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (v 14). Because Paul knows the Christians are a new race within humanity, he establishes that "neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision" (v 15).
Although some may interpret verse 17 to read that Paul bore the stigmata, the words "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus," most likely refer to the wounds and scars that he bore from beatings and persecution in order that he might "fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ" (Col 1:24).
One must not conclude a study in Galatians without establishing that even the mind can be "of the flesh." In Col 2:18, Paul says "let no one disqualify you...puffed up without reason by his sensuous [fleshly] mind." A mind of the flesh has, among other things, a tendency to "rack up points" for itself after executing good deeds. He rails against those who place the things of this passing world – especially a pride-filled asceticism – ahead of Jesus Christ (cf. 20 ff).
Additionally, one must note that the Catholic interpretation of Romans and Galatians has never been that one can earn his salvation through good works. The Council of Trent reaffirmed the existing truth that no Catholic can earn his salvation, for it is a free gift of God. Still, ill-taught, immature and sinful Catholics may sometimes fall into the mindset that they must earn their salvation. One hopes that by living the fullness of truth in love, Catholics will debunk the myths that many non-Catholics believe about the Church's Magisterium. Further, living the fullness of the Catholic faith allows one to bear the fruits of a life in the Spirit, maintain a loving responsibility for his brothers, and continuously grow nearer to God.
Christians do well to model Paul's passion and willingness to challenge that which is manifestly wrong and leads to the spiritual death of the brethren.
Music: Beethoven's Sonata No. 4 in E Flat Major, Op. 7 performed by Paul Pitman. www.musopen.com
In Galatians 5:13, Paul begins a pivotal discourse on the life in the Spirit. He writes, "for you were called to freedom; brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for flesh." His discourse aptly begins with exhortations to live in the maturity that is freedom and love; he then makes a statement that seems peculiar at first glance: "But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another" (v 14). To better understand this passage, one can recall that churches in Paul's age were frequently beset by fierce disputes between opposing ecclesial factions. As any good shepherd, he does not wish the victors to take vengeance on those who lose theological disputes. To do this, he highlights the sins of pride, "enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy," within his litany of sins of the flesh (v 20, 21). Finally, he presents the Fruits of the Spirit as the expression of a harmonious and fruitful community life and further encourages the strife-filled Galatians to "walk by the Spirit" and have "no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another" (v 25-26).
In light of the vicious disputes in Galatia, Paul begins Chapter 6 with an underlying confidence in the ability of the Church to heal and return to harmony. He begins by instructing those who consider themselves "spiritual" Christians to restore fallen brothers and sisters, and to fulfill this responsibility with a "spirit of gentleness" that is fair and never that of a pushover (v 1). He demands that a man watch out for his brothers but warns against pride: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself" (v 2-3). In the Galaitian Church, the burden "spiritual" Christians must bear is likely the shame and guilt they feel towards those who followed the Judaizers as well as the humility to allow them to return to the fold after reform.
The verse "Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches" speaks to the just wages due to all clerics, presupposing that they are teaching well (v 6). Given the abysmal state of our catechesis, Catholics have a long way to go to attain the standards of the Galatian church, let alone the expectations of a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
Music: Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Paul knows that the free gift of Christ is a stumbling block for those who desire a religion of self-justification. He uses excruciatingly strong language against the advocates of such legalism when he says, "I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves!" (Gal 5:12b)
Paul masterfully indicts the Judaizers as law-breakers who are preoccupied with the flesh. His conception of "flesh" speaks not only to one's sensual desires, but of anything which animates one apart from Christ, anything within a man that fights against the Spirit (cf v 17). True Christian life is a fight to the death against every desire of his flesh; any provision for the flesh is a surrender to the devil and puts one's soul in grave peril. The Judaizers' fleshly focus blinds them and their disciples from the freedom of the Christian life that is being "servants of one another" through love (v 13). Citing Leviticus 19, Paul affirms "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (v 14). Moreover, he knows "if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law" (Gal 5:18).
Paul then lists 15 sins, attempting to compile a comprehensive list of the provisions of the flesh, "fornication, impurity, licentiousness [bawdiness], idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit [ecclesial factionalism], envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (v 20-21).
He contrasts these sins with those qualities which the Spirit gives to all disciples of Christ "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law" (v 23). Paul's focus on the Spirit seeks to clearly contrast it with the system of the law as an end in itself. One must not forget that the righteous man will live by faith and that God has no pleasure in him who begins in the Spirit but turns to his own resources in self-justification (cf Heb 10:37-38).
The powerful statement "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" serves as both a summary of the Christian life and a warning for Christians to ever remain in Christ (Gal 5:24). A proper focus on Christ crucified does not downplay of the Resurrection; rather, Christ crucified is the proper emblem of our discipleship.
Faith is trust in God and a response to the his grace in Spirit, and Paul asserts " If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another" (v 26-27).
In light of the promise of Christ and the understanding of the Early Church, Catholics are not bread-worshipers, but disciples of our Lord in the Eucharist. Yet, "going through the motions" of the Mass condemns one just as much as does legalism. If Christians have been made for a relationship with the living God, the Mass is the supreme moment of one's life, the summit of worship and the source of an evident love, joy and peace. Were a Christian to not express love, joy or peace, it is a sign that he never had the life of Christ or that the tares of the word have choked him. Daily prayer and recollection are necessary for all disciples. Periodically, times of deeper prayer are required, and a period of detoxification from the world and one's own thoughts is often a prerequisite for entering into true prayer.
Music: Franz Schubert's Sonata in B Flat, D. 960 performed by David H. Porter. www.musopen.com
Paul puts forth several lines of argumentation in Galatians 1-4, including:
1) The Messiah is greater than Israel and is a hope for the whole world;
2) More than a fulfillment of the law, Christ is God's perfect gift for those who, in their mortal weakness, cannot hope to fulfill all the demands of God by themselves;
3) Paul's ministry to the Galatians exhibited both bona fide miracles and the introduction of the Spirit in these Gentiles' hearts;
4) The law served Israel as a tutor who controls an unruly child, but Christians are called to be adults, not mere children; and
5) It is foolish to turn from the Spirit's promptings and rely on self-justification and slavish bondage.
In Chapter 4 he discusses the theology of the law and the promises of God. He teaches that the promise precedes the law, and further states that God intended for the law to show His people they had the disease of sin, that they might yearn for the Messiah's redemption. Using the two sons of Abraham in an allegory, Paul illustrates how the son of a slave, conceived through man's fleshly design, stands in contrast to the son of a free woman, born through supernatural grace (cf. v 21-31). His gospel offers freedom in Christ; this freedom is born of maturity and establishes a right relationship with God. If Christ has set us free from the shackles of self-justification under the law, Christians must "stand fast, therefore, and ... not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (5:1).
Paul then makes a strong and concise rabbinical argument: "If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace" (v 2-3). In this attempt to convict the Galatians, Paul explains that Christians are called to a life of faith and love in the Spirit that comes from God, hoping "through the Spirit, by faith," for the righteousness that will be revealed at Chrit's second coming (cf. v 4). He further states, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love" (v 6).
By asking "who hindered you from obeying the truth?" Paul contrasts obedience to God with an obedience merely to the law (v 7). Notably, the Greek word for disobedience is the same word for disbelief. A Christian notion of obedience would be to respond to God with trust and belief, relating to Him as He is. One expresses his obedience by reciting the Creed at Mass, which begins in the Latin with the word credo: I believe. This deeply personal statement is akin to a marriage vow. Like the Shema Israel, however, our life in God is both deeply personal and deeply communal, demanding a loving response: "Hear O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deut 6:4-5).
Music: Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 in C Minor "Pathetique", Op. 13 performed by Daniel Veesey. www.musopen.com
Paul expounds on the adoption of Christians as God's sons in the beginning of the fourth chapter of Galatians. He focuses on the unique role of the Spirit in this adoption: it is through the Spirit that the Father knows his sons; through the same Spirit, God's sons come to know the Eternal Son and can enter into the divine life of the Holy Trinity. In his other epistles, Paul shows how the presence of the Spirit in one's heart is both an assurance and an affirmation of one's sonship (cf Rom 8:16).
In verse 8, Paul digresses from his theological discourse, recounting the bond he had with the Galatian church by stating "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe [Jewish] days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have [strenuously] labored over you in vain" (v 8-9). One can see how the influence of the Judaizers has led the Galatian Christians to block out God with their array of compulsive routines and superstitious rituals.
Paul then reminds the Galatians how he poured himself out for them, challenging them to be as mature in Christ as he is (v 12). Although exegetes are uncertain of what is was that lead him to say, "you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first," it is clear that the Galatians cared for him while he taught as one in the person of Christ (v 13-14). He confronts the church by asking, "what has become of the satisfaction you felt? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me," and hints at the probable ocular nature of his ailment (v 15-16). He rebukes the Judaizers for making a fuss over the Galatians with neither good reason nor noble intent (v 18). Paul also shows the outstanding pastoral care he has for his "little [Galatian] children," those for whom he toiled in constant prayer.
Paul closes the fourth chapter with an extended metaphor. He establishes his allegory by stating "Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise" (v 22). He then juxtaposes the slave-mother Hagar, the law of Mount Sinai and the present Jerusalem with the free Jerusalem who is the Christian's true mother. The Galatians are called to be "children of the promise" like Isaac, but foolishly allow the Judaizers, who live according to the flesh, to persecute their life with the Spirit (cf v 28-29). Paul ends by citing Genesis, instructing them to cast off the shackles of the Judaizers and return to their freedom, "Cast out the slave and her son; for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman" (21:10-12).
Music: Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 in E Major, Op. 14 No. 1 performed by Paul Pitmam. www.musopen.com
St. Irenaeus Ministries will be featured on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" Thursday, September 4th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Find out more on siministries.org.
God's law is always good when properly interpreted and executed (cf. Ps 119). When used incorrectly, specifically when manipulated for self-justification, it is disastrous. The law can illuminate one's sinful ways and highlight God's justice, but it cannot make one just.
Just as parents establish restraints and regulations on their young children, God used the law to instruct the fledgling Jewish people. Far more than a set of arbitrary burdens, our Heavenly Father intended his children's compliance with the law to be an expression of their love for Him. God also willed that it would be an aid to his people in the acquisition of the freedom, responsibility and love necessary to accept the Messiah. Many Jews, however, viewed the law as an end in itself; some even worshiped it instead of God.
Paul instructs, "Now before faith [Jesus Christ] came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith could be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ ... and if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Gal 3:23-26, 28). Even so, the heir to God's promise remains a minor, living under the care of the stewards of his household, "until the date set by the father" (4:2).
"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (4:4-6). After adopting fleshly creatures as His sons, God conceives them anew as heavenly creatures by sending "the Spirit of his Son" into their hearts; through God they are no longer slaves but sons, and if sons, then also heirs (cf. 4:6-7). Paul finally appeals to the Galatians not to merely live within a religious system but to use religion to more completely embrace the living Christ, deepening an intimate relationship with the Triune God.
Music: Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15 performed by Donald Betts. www.musopen.com
Paul continues to explore the correct relationship between the Mosaic law and Gentile Christians in Galatians 3:10. By stating that "in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham [came] upon the Gentiles," he overturns the argument of the Judaizers (cf. 3:14). One must not let the Mosaic Law replace God's covenant with Abraham, for "Anything that comes afterward does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void" (3:17). With this logic Paul advocates Covenantial Theology: God makes multiple covenants with His people over time to unfold His plan in stages, building block upon block; later covenants do not nullify prior covenants. Biblical Christians ought to contrast Paul's orthodoxy with the heterodox Dispensational Theology that arose in 19th Century Protestant circles and appears in the Scofield Reference Bible (1st ed. 1909).
He continues, "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise was made" (3:19). The law can do the work of God by stirring up those who have faith to realize that they must rely on the promise of God. One should follow God's laws without acquiring a delusional attitude of self-righteousness.
The law does not work against God's promises but serves as a custodian for the people of God until they come of age (cf. 3:24-29). God designed His people to mature and become "sons of God, through faith" in Christ Jesus (3:26). Christians who follow God's will from the heart are likely to produce works of faith from the heart.
Baptism fundamentally changes one's soul so that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave, nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus," though one's body and state in life are likely to remain the same (3:28). Further nourished by the gift of the Eucharist, God prepares his people to go into all the world and spread the gospel.
Music: Bach's Aria Variata, BVW. 989 performed by Brendan Kinsella. www.musopen.com
The issue of Galatians has always been stark: either the Judaizers are correct and Paul is a gross heretic, or Paul's gospel is from God and the Judaizing legalists are confusing the Galatian converts. Yet, Christians since the Protestant Reformation have used Paul's argument in this epistle to understand to the relationship of faith and works. One would have to bend Paul's logic and terminology to argue that living the essential gospel does not entail any form of religious action. Certainly he sees baptism, the laying on of hands, conduct-changing repentance, and other vital acts as key to living a Christian life.
Christians should rightly be weary of both legalistic additions to the gospel and an attitude of antinomianism, a philosophy of lawlessness. The correct understanding of the nature of saving faith and Christian liberty is at stake in Chapter 3. An upset Paul asks who has tricked the Galatians into questioning the clear gospel in which he instructed them. He also asks whether or not the supernatural life, Spirit and miracles he offered them are more convincing than the new philosophy of the Judaizers.
The phrase "the works of the law" does not mean obedience to the law (cf. 3:5). A negative term in this context, Paul instead rebukes a reliance on self-justification through good works to gain access to salvation and absolve sins. The true child of God admits his weaknesses and wholeheartedly trusts in Jesus Christ despite his faults rather than try to manipulate a legal system in order to gain eternal life by his own actions. More important than the acts themselves are one's motives and intent.
Hebrews 12 shows examples of obedient acts of faith, for "by faith Abraham obeyed," persistently migrated West, and even tied his son Isaac on an altar for sacrifice. These wise actions exhibit a total reliance on God. The Book of Hebrews, John 8, Romans, Galatians, James and others show the necessity for the Christian not only to believe, but also to work in accord with God's will through his actions. Paul always sought to bring about obedience to God through faith among the Gentiles. One finds the phrase "the obedience of faith" throughout the Epistle to the Romans, notably at the beginning and the end.
The relationship of faith and works bears significance to all Christians, but in a special way to Mass-attending Catholics. The difference between clocking in and out of Mass and offering one's total self in faith and humility with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and receiving His body and blood is the difference between an act of legalism and an act of faith.
Music: Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor performed by Paul Pitman. www.musopen.com
The start of the second chapter of Galatians accounts Paul's journey to Jerusalem "after fourteen years," when he seeks Apostolic verification of the authenticity of his gospel and ministry. The Apostles clearly affirm his message and works, for "even Titus was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek" (v 3).
His words become passionate when he describes the attempts of certain Judaizers to sabotage his ministry, but states "to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you" (v 5). Paul shrewdly puts himself on a par with Peter, whom he refers to as Cephas, citing his mission to the uncircumcised and that of Cephas to the circumcised (v 8).
He writes, "But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned," for he had abandoned eating with Gentiles after the arrival of the "circumcision party" (v 11-12). Peter's insincere actions influence the rest of the Jews and even Barnabas, going against the Antiochian Church's former custom of open fellowship between Jews and Greeks. Reacting to this, Paul says to Peter before the assembly, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (v 14). A former rabbinical student, Paul properly follows the law but knows that "if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose" (v 21). In this he emphasizes the singular merit of Christ's sacrificial death and upholds the notion of Biblical Catholicity, where both Jew and Greek have access to life through His saving death.
Paul's intolerance to and efforts against legalism, divisions, and mere "cultural Christianity" should motivate the modern Christian who may feel surrounded by ungodly influences in an overly-polite Church; if he seems shrill, it is because modern Christians are so dull.
Additionally, it is pivotal that Christians accept the life-giving sacrifice of Christ and proclaim with Paul that "I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (v 20). Only then will one discover that the Christian life is truly about "putting on divinity," and entering into the uncreated life of the triune God.
Music: Beethoven's "Symphony No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Within the first eleven verses of Galatians, Paul essentially damns twice over the Judaizers who have spread a contrary gospel. In our excessively polite culture, Paul's unwavering attitude toward critical theological issues may seem hostile or exaggerated; in reality, his reaction is both fitting and necessary.
The most important argument in the dating of Galatians is the absence of any appeal to the Council of Jerusalem's decision (cf. Acts 15). Because of this, it is extremely likely that Paul wrote this epistle sometime between A.D. 46 and A.D. 48. A significant chronological problem remains, however, in two separate portions of the text. First, Galatians 1:18 speaks to Paul's first visit to Jerusalem three years after his conversion. Later, it states that he travels to Jerusalem after another fourteen years (cf. 2:1). Mathematically, seventeen years before the A.D. 48 would bring one to the improbable conclusion that Paul composed this letter in A.D. 31, too early by any theological or chronological assessment. However, one must realize that it is a Jewish chronological practices to consider even a part of a year as an additional year; it is also entirely possible that Paul may not have meant to add these fourteen years (cf. 2:1) to the three years he specifies earlier (cf. 1:18).
Paul's point in referencing these years is to establish that God has given him His gospel, that the Jerusalem authorities confirmed his possession of the essential gospel and that villains of God's gospel are accursed.
To provide some chronological background, one could date Paul's conversion in either A.D. 34 or 35 (cf. Acts 9), which would place many of the events within the Book of Acts in that decade. By A.D. 44, the gospel spreads into Antioch and beyond and in Chapter 13 of Acts, the Holy Spirit sets Saul (Paul) and Barnabas apart for missionary activity. Towards the end of this first missionary journey, Paul travels through southern Galatia and participates in a famine-relief effort in Antioch. He then travels to Jerusalem after fourteen years, which again, may refer to a date fourteen years after his conversion (cf. Gal 2:1). It is during this trip that Paul notices a rise of intense anti-Gentile attitudes among the Christians in Jerusalem and his confrontation with the Judaizers becomes inevitable.
Music: Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
History has shown that Christians do best when they approach the Bible comprehensively. Many have profited in Bible study by availing themselves of ample background information, prayerfully reading through the text, considering the opinions of worthy commentators and carefully pondering those elements of the story not expressly stated in Scripture.
A good backdrop for a study of the Book of Galatians is that the Jewish people historically classified men into two races: Jews and Gentiles. In the Apostolic age, however, Christians began to believe that humanity had three races: Jews, Gentiles, and Christians born anew in Jesus Christ.
For centuries, theologians assumed Paul wrote this epistle to the ethnic Gauls in northern Galatia. In the 20th Century, many began to consider an earlier early dating of the epistle and put forth a strong argument that Paul wrote instead to the Jews and Gentiles in southern Galatia. This latter position seems more credible for many convincing reasons, such as the fact that there is no reference to the Council of Jerusalem in the book and that the Galatian names listed in the epistle are from the south. Commentator F. F. Bruce recently stated that Galatians was the earliest of Paul's letters, composed just before the Council of Jerusalem.
The issue of whether living a fully Christianity life required circumcision had great significance for the early Church, especially considering the lack of anesthesia and the rabbinical practice to use a stone knife for the procedure. History leaves few details about the Judaizers specific to Galatia, but it is likely that they traveled from church to church to spread their positions and claimed a commission from the pious and powerful James, Proto-Bishop of Jerusalem.
From the onset, Paul passionately affirms that his message is from God, not from man (cf. Gal 1:1). He then juxtaposes the grace and peace of Christ's gospel with the troubling perversions that come from the Judaizers. He writes, "even if ... an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8). Not treating the issue as a mere discussion of doctrinal theory, he passionately points out all that is essential to know Jesus Christ and live in His resurrection.
After reflecting on Galatians, a number of questions emerge: What place should Jewish teachings and the Old Testament have in the Church? Who or what tries to pervert the gospel in this age? What is essential to live the Gospel? How do we best live out that which is essential?
Music: Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A Major performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra
To celebrate the Year of St. Paul, we begin now a study of the Epistle to the Galatians, a work which is authentically Pauline. The most argumentative and passionate of all his letters, it speaks to an extremely contentious issue in the early church: whether a Gentile male had to be circumcised to be considered fully Christian. Theologians aptly recognize this epistle as "spiritual dynamite," and the ways Luther and others interpreted this book ignited the Protestant Reformation.
Galatians is well-renowned as a book that celebrates Christian liberty. Paul posits that if Jesus Christ is solely sufficient for our salvation, then a Christian's life must remain unadulterated by an outdated legalism and non-Christian philosophies.
To provide a bit of historical background, after persecuting the Way and undergoing a dramatic conversion, Saul (only later called Paul) began his ministry outside Damascus. A few years later he presented himself to the Church in in Jerusalem, who quickly sent him to Tarsus because of his infamous reputation. While Paul was in Tarsus, a mass influx of Gentile Christians entered the primarily Jewish Church in Antioch. The problems that arose when these Gentiles intermixed with Jewish Christians presented a dire problem, especially considering that the latter group had safeguarded their pedigree for generations. Barnabas traveled to Antioch to survey the situation for the Church of Jerusalem. Overjoyed at the conversion of so many Gentiles, he soon realized that these new Christians need an experienced teacher and called Saul from Tarsus to take the office.
One day, while the leaders of the Church of Antioch were at prayer, the Holy Spirit said to them, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2). Heeding this command, the Church sent them to Cyprus and then to Asia Minor where they ministered to southern Galatia.
Upon returning to Antioch, Paul found troublesome Judaizers coercing Gentile Christians to undergo circumcision. When Peter arrived in Jerusalem, Paul contested the practice of the Apostle of eating only with Judaizers or by himself, whereas he used to eat freely with Gentiles. After Paul publicly rebuked Peter about this, the matter was decided at the Council of Jerusalem in A.D. 50 (cf. Acts 15). Although many scholars debate over the dating of Paul's letter, the fact he does not mention the council's decision in Galatians clearly places its composition prior to A.D. 50.
Studying this epistle reveals that Paul is far more than just a cantankerous character. Rather, he emerges as a staunch defender of all that is essential to the Gospel, one who is more than willing to stand up a powerful school of legalists to uphold the truth.
Amidst all the theological arguments in this book, Paul takes great care to describe a living spirituality in which Christians experience the full life of Christ: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal 2:20).
Music: Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 by Johannes Brahms, performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Patrick Brennan was born and raised in suburban Rochester, NY by his faithful Catholic parents. The oldest male in a homeschooling family of five children, Patrick often volunteered as an altar server and lector at his parish. As he matured, however, his engineering mind found it increasingly difficult to believe in something he could not understand. Unsatisfied with the lack of fellowship at his parish, he was never challenged to foster a spirituality which embodied more than the abstract sentiment that "God loves you."
Everything changed in Patrick's life when his father lost his job. In one year, his family moved four times while his father looked for work, eventually settling in Wisconsin; the more his family moved the more Patrick's faith wavered. As the financial situation grew grim, he began to earnestly pray for their well-being. After months of frequent prayer, his father received a rare call-back for a job interview. In the days leading up to the interview, Patrick doubled his prayers and trusted that God would finally come to the aid of his family. The sad news that his father did not get the job crushed Patrick's struggling faith. Within a few months, he did not consider himself a Catholic but a Deist who suspected religion was nothing more than a show. At this point, the 17 year-old stopped praying altogether and got a job to help support his family; if God would not attend to their needs, he would have to be the one to carry the family on his shoulders.
In time, Patrick began to apply to colleges. Always computer-savvy, he decided to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology to become a Software Engineer. As he was departing for college, his mother handed him a Bible. He immediately handed it back to her and said, "I don't need this."
Soon after arriving in Rochester, an old friend invited Patrick to St. Titus Fellowship at the St. Irenaeus Center. Although only a small group at the time, the fellowship at St. Titus opened his eyes anew to the Catholic faith. As he began to regularly attend this Friday night fellowship, he more and more saw that faith was not simply "a glimmer of light that merely touches our lives, no, it is a torch that each of us needs to carry -- it's a way of life."
When he returned to Wisconsin over Christmas break, he began to read the Bible he once told his mother he did not need. As the next few academic terms passed, Patrick witnessed great growth at St. Titus Fellowship. While the group increased in numbers and its fellowship deepened, his faith grew strong like iron strengthened by iron. He now realized that his main purpose in life was to strive for Heaven.
Patrick's family still has its struggles, but he is thankful that God's grace has brought them through their darkest hours. He now realizes that were it not for the brothers in Christ he met at St. Irenaeus, he would not be Catholic today.
Dick Graham was also born in Rochester, NY to a faithful Irish Catholic family. After serving in the Navy and graduating college, he married and started a family. Though he never doubted his Catholicism, the responsibilities fatherhood and a career were so pressing that Dick never inquired why the Church taught what it did.
After his retirement, he began to study his Catholic faith and eventually ventured into anti-Catholic Fundamentalist chat rooms on the Internet. After a few years of serious study and frequent discussion with Protestants on the Internet, Dick began to win theological debates. It was at that time that Dick founded CARS, the Catholic Apologists of Rochester Society. The aim of CARS is to enable Catholics to grow in their knowledge of the faith, particularly by studying Scripture and the Catechism.
Music: "Foggy Tam Set" from album "Wild Wood" by Shira Kammen. www.magnatune.com
Many have some familiarity with the apparitions at Fatima. In this talk from the Men's Breakfast of January 2008, Gene Michael surveys Our Lady's apparitions to the three Portuguese children from an intriguing vantage point: Mary's message to men. Devoted husband and father of two, this former Battalion Chief within Rochester's Fire Department currently leads Credo, a Pro-Life apostolate, and directs the esteemed website RochesterCatholic.Com.
The story of Fatima begins in 1915 when an eight-year-old Lucia (Lucy) Santos observed a bright light an angel known as the "Angel of Peace". Three times in 1916, the Angel of Peace appeared to Lucy and her two cousins, seven-year old Jacinta and eight-year-old Francisco Marto. After asking them to pray for the reparation of sins and the conversion of sinners, this angel taught them to revere the Blessed Sacrament through prostration and prayer, and even brought the Eucharist to the children.
In May of 1917, the three children witnessed a woman "more beautiful than the sun" hovering above an oak tree. She held a Rosary in her hand and instructed the children to return to the spot five more times, on the 13th of each month, ending in October of that year. During this year, Mary instructed the children to pray five decades of the Rosary daily to bring peace in the world. On one notable occasion, Mary revealed that Lucy and Jacinta would spend eternity in Heaven, but that Francisco "would have to pray many Rosaries" to achieve this reward. Far from advocating the notion that one can earn salvation, Mary's words spoke to the difficulty of traveling the road that leads to Heaven (even for an eight-year-old), and to the necessity of frequent communion with God in prayer. Our Lady continuously asked the children to make reparation for sinners by penance and warned them that they would suffer greatly.
In June, Mary warned Jacinta and Fancisco that they would be taken to Heaven very soon but that Lucy would remain on earth to venerate her Immaculate Heart; she assured the children that all who embraced her Immaculate Heart - which is entirely and perfectly united to the Jesus - would be given salvation. The "Secret" of Fatima was the focus of July's apparition. The secret is usually referred to in three separate parts: (1) World War I will end; (2) another war will begin if men do not repent from sin; and (3) a widely debated, long-confidential secret regarding great turmoil within the Church. Mary instructed the children in making First Saturday devotions and to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, warning that proper execution of these two tenets would stifle Russia's errors and prevent another war. The other critical portion of the children's experience with Mary on July 13, 1917 was a vision of Hell that left them with a great fear of eternal damnation.
In August, anticlerical governmental authorities incarcerated the children and forced them to miss their rendezvous with Our Lady. Although their lives were violently threatened by these men, the children would not recant. Several days later, Mary appeared to the children, encouraging them to sacrifice for sinners through penance and mortification. The children heeded this message by each fixing a coarse rope around their torso, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Our Lady's September vision contained a foreshadowing of the great miracle to take place that October 13th and a prudent instruction to remove their penitential ropes while they slept.
70,000 Portuguese citizens, journalists and photographers traveled to the place of Mary's apparitions to witness this miracle. Heavy rains had turned the countryside into a quagmire and awaited a great miracle. Soon, the crowd witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun", where sun seemed to dance and to change color. During this miracle, Mary spoke to the children, warning men not to continue to offend God, already greatly perturbed by their actions. As Our Lady departed for Heaven, the sun plunged toward earth on a path to annihilate the crowd. The people panicked and began to confess their sins. At the last moment, the sun ceased and retreated to its normal position; the crowd then found themselves and the countryside completely dry. Those journalists in attendance covered this story in dozens of newspapers, including the New York Times.
As she was dying of influenza, Jacinta spoke to Lucy, saying, "So many people falling into Hell ... tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Priests must be pure, very pure. They should not busy themselves with anything other than the salvation of souls. The disobedience of priests to their superiors and the Holy Father greatly displeases our Lord."
Some have expressed that the message of Fatima creates undue focus on Mary, one that can lead a Christian away from Jesus. But St. Louis de Montfort's words remain true: "The more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it will be consecrated to Jesus Christ."
Fatima is extremely relevant to the modern Christian, especially the Christian man. The errors of Russia have indeed spread throughout the world and the moral, causing Christians to question their moral and spiritual identity. Rather than retreat in the face of troubles in contemporary Church and society, God has called modern men to live lives of sacrifice for the good of their families and the world. Armed with an interior devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, lives lived in active service for evangelization and the pro-life movement will please God and help save many souls.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 describes a stubborn and rebellious son who, despite chastisements, will not obey his father and mother. The Law allows the parents of such a child to present him to the elders at their town's gate and "say to the elders, 'this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid." Although this mitzvaoth may seem barbaric at first glance, it protects the wayward young man from his parents' anger and demands the elders' consensus before any judgment. After critical analysis, sees that only a law of divine origin could so brilliantly enshrine a principle while keeping a conviction virtually impossible. In 3,000 past years, no record exists of anyone dying in this manner.
Mosaic Law permits using the death penalty as a punishment for crimes against a human person or for apostasy, never for crimes against property. Rabbinical literature further regulates the use of capital punishment only when it follows due process (the trial of Christ is the notable exception).
Moses then proposes the covenant to the new Generation of Israelites: either serve the Lord your God or not (cf. 29:14). To visualize this fundamental choice for the people, he juxtaposes Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, with Ebal, the mountain of curse. Before giving them the opportunity to seal themselves to the Lord, Moses recounts the incredible safety with which God has blessed them during their 40-year sojourn. He then warns that those who agree to follow God's covenant but persist in their own sinful ways forsake the covenant and will bring a terrible curse upon themselves (cf. 21-28).
Because God knows His people are apt to forget the Law, He instructs his priests to "Assemble the people – men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns –so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this Law" (cf. 31:9-13). This will also teach their children, who have not yet heard the Law, to fear the Lord their God as long as they live. God's incredible sovereignty instills fear and His people rightly tremble before His majesty.
The Hebrew notion of holiness always contains elements of separation: cleaving to one's God will require a separation from the world.
God will give life to His people if they love Him, obey the Him and persist in His ways. Following the Lord is always a matter of one's heart: to close one's heart to Him is to cease loving or obeying Him.
Because Israel is a stiff-necked and rebellious people, Moses makes certain concessions to them. Jesus significantly raises the standards for the people of God, eliminating these concessions for His followers. Those who follow Christ are blessed with a greater blessing than that which the Law provided; not following Christ brings a larger curse than that which befell those who forsook the Law. The Messiah's teachings are for the spiritually-minded, not the fleshly-minded; adhering to them requires the complete gift of heart, soul and might.
Music: Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Deuteronomy chapters 12-26 contain the exposition of God's law. At the onset, He demands that His people purge their land of all false religion (Deut. 12). The Lord of all will not tolerate being worshiped at shrines to pagan idols. Further, He abhors any relativistic attitudes where men do whatever seems right in their eyes (v 8). His people are to wholeheartedly resist the devil in all his forms, especially temptations to do those wrongs that may seem so right.
God warns Israel in 12:29 to put away curiosity about the religions of other nations and to reject all forms of syncretism (when a religion begins to adopt pagan practices). Although God makes it clear He does not want His people to add or subtract from His law, in reality, modern Christianity has tended towards various forms of syncretism.
Contrary to some modern notions, Christ did not eliminate any of the laws of Torah. While some of His laws may not directly apply to Gentiles, it is in His people's best interest to study and understand the Law of Moses.
In chapter 13, God reveals that He will test His people with false prophets and apostates to see whether or not they will love Him fully (v 1-3). He instructs the community to put to death by due process any false prophets and all apostate family members who solicit idolatry. Although this may seem extreme to some, God is not a sap, and He will not be mocked. If God has called a nation to be His sons and daughters, His people have an obligation to keep His covenant and not to tolerate apostasy among their ranks in any form.
The rest of the law continues to define the way God's people are to live. He instructs them in many areas of life, covering everything from Passover regulations, to dealing with an unruly son and neighborly conduct. Throughout the entire exposition, God reiterates that all His commandments are for the good of His people and will set them apart that they might be a witness for all the nations.
Music: Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Because Jesus' teachings build upon the Law which God revealed through Moses, Christians must take care not to overlook the Old Testament. The fourth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy contains God's demand that we heed all of His statutes and ordinances and that we "do them that [we] may live" (v 1). One brings judgment upon himself if he decides to add or subtract any of the Lord's commands.
Acknowledging the weakness of man's memory, Moses repeatedly instructs the people to bind God's law to their hearts and to diligently put it into action. Although his approach may appear on the surface to be redundant, his repetition is a deliberate attempt to cultivate God's words deep into their memory. This type of instruction helps them realize what a profound gift God has given the people:
"Did anything so great ever happen before? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? All this you were allowed to see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other" (4:34-35).
The fifth chapter of Deuteronomy contains the powerful giving of the Ten Commandments in the Covenant at Horeb.
Deuteronomy six is at the core of the Bible, for it contains our Great Commandment, the Shema Israel. Any pious person will spend a lifetime struggling to follow this command in its entirety; only a fool would take any portion of it lightly. God commands, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! And [therefore] you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates" (6:4-9). Following the Great Commandment means that one seeks to offer every thought and action of his life in worshipful reverence to the one true God. This includes the way he handles his money. Notably, following this commandment means doing whatever possible to teach one's children and grandchildren to live it fully.
"When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would give you ... take care not to forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery" (v 10,12). Like the Israelites, Americans must beware not to "follow other gods ... lest the wrath of the Lord" flare up against us (v 14-15). Our "other gods" today can come in the form of sex, money, or prestige.
The seventh chapter highlights the Israelites as a unique people, separate from all the other nations. So, too, Christians are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people he claims for His own" (1 Pt 2:9, cf Ex 19:6).
God demands these things from us for our own good. "Keep all the commandments, then, which I enjoin on you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land into which you are crossing, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Dt 11:9).
Only by binding God's commandments to our hearts and living them out in holy habits, disciplines that train one to habitually do the right thing, does one have any chance to defeat the devil.
God sets before us a blessing and a curse: a blessing for those who follow His commands, a curse for those who do not. The Book of Hebrews clearly shows that the New Covenant has raised the bar, for those who do not keep his commandments reap eternal punishment. The Lord knows the weakness of men's hearts and gives them the Sacrament of Baptism to circumcise this heart, the Eucharist to renew it, and innumerable other blessings. Let us firmly claim the blessings that He has given us, offering ourselves to Him entirely while we still have time to do so.
Music: Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Deuteronomy is a keystone in the arch of Biblical theology. Literally meaning a "second recitation of the law," to understand this book is to understand the standards Christ sought to raise. Jesus said "think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets, I have come to fulfill them; not one jot or tittle will pass away until all is fulfilled. Anyone who relaxes on the least of these commandments will be considered the least in the Kingdom of God," so all remains in effect unless He specifically and explicitly gives dispensation.
Before entering the text proper, we consider the many theological points that Deuteronomy establishes. First is a theology of words: God's words matter. Next, Deuteronomy contains a theology of memory: we would do well to reflect on all that God has done for His people. The story of Israel then becomes our own history: as we enter into these memories we are obligated to pass them on to each generation. The Church continues these Jewish traditions of word and memory in her liturgy. To illustrate, the priest stands on the altar as another Christ speaking to us, His disciples. Because God is beyond time, the raising of palms on Palm Sunday is both a remembrance of and a sharing in Christ’s entrance celebration at Jerusalem.
Deuteronomy establishes categories that represent something timeless in man and his condition that point us to principles, ideas and objective things in our salvation experience. One might consider this a theology of "types." In the words of Fr. Paul Quay, SJ, ‘we are all fated to relive the Old Testament,’ so we should read the script and strive to live our parts faithfully.
A theology of community, key to the divine intention, gives man meaning. All fell with Adam; all were redeemed in Christ's saving act: God calls us to be a corporate people without removing individual responsibilities.
God's sovereignty and His sovereign choice are key to understanding Deuteronomy. He is supreme, one, Lord of all, and He chooses His people for salvation and consecration. We are called to come into the presence of the living God – let us not delay. The promises of Deuteronomy also imply an even greater grace that is only fulfilled after Christ in Baptism.
God's call requires a response: holiness. The only faithful responses to God's call are to either to trust Him or to seek clarification on how to trust Him. All else is sin and borders on breaking the tenet, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Deut 6:16). Israel all-too-often wanted their God to jump through hoops for them. They required constant "perks" and were ready to call everything off if they did not get their way immediately and in full. How foolish are we to still act as they did, we who have so many graces from Christ! Jesus recapitulated their 40-year sojourn in his 40-day fast in the desert. The devil's three temptations there were significant, especially when he asked Jesus to disobey Deuteronomy 6:16.
Finally, theologies of obedience and love also emerge from the text. We are called to give ourselves freely, fully and faithfully to God and to our people.
The Book of Deuteronomy begins with Moses giving the people a historical prologue for all the people about their journey from Sinai (Horeb) to the attempted mutiny of Moses at Kadesh which is essentially a rebellion against the Lord. Moses also accounts the other rebellions where tens of thousands die, and also their victories over Sihon and Og.
Music: Grieg's "Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
God gives a central decree when He says "Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Ex 19:5-6). The Apostle Peter expounds on this in the second chapter of his First Epistle, confirming that the entire people of God is a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices (good deeds, building virtues, witness); in addition, the people of God is to be built into both a living community and an edifice, a temple that God inhabits. Christ is our cornerstone. If we believe in Him, we will not be put to shame in our functions of the royal priesthood.
The presence of a priesthood of all believers, however, does not preclude an ordained priesthood. Because God is in our midst, we must have a specifically ordained priesthood to serve the sanctuary and offer sacrifices.
Korah, a Levite, considered the presence of an ordained priesthood to be elitism and, making allies with a number of other rebellious individuals, oversteps the boundaries of the temple to offer incense (cf. Num 16). After Moses and Aaron temporarily intercede for the whole people, God's judgment upon Korah and his band was that the "ground beneath them split open and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their families [...] they went down to the nether world [...] and fire from the Lord consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense" (16:31, 33, 35). Do we ever hear of Catholics in America who act this way? If so, how might God react to their actions?
In response to the rebellion and the people's murmuring, God then sent a plague upon the whole people so terrible that even after the intercession of Moses and Aaron it killed 14,700 people. To illustrate God's favor, one staff from each tribe is selected for a demonstration. The next day, Aaron's staff, representing the house of Levi, "had sprouted and put forth not only shoots, but blossoms as well, and even bore ripe almonds!" (Num 17:23).
In Chapter 20, we see the old guard changing in the account of the deaths of Miriam and later Aaron. Just as they had at Massah, the people begin murmuring for water at Meribah (also known as Korah). In a rare lapse, Moses chooses not to listen to the Lord's commands to speak to the rock to yield its waters, but instead strikes it twice. Although water did gush forth for the people to drink, both Moses and Aaron (who complied with the decision) will not be permitted to enter into the promised land. Paul later teaches that this rock was Christ. One can learn from this lapse that the law (Moses) alone cannot bring you into the promised land, but instead Joshua (or in the Greek, Jesus) alone can bring you to your rest.
Because the Edomites will not let the people pass into Palestine, the Israelites begin a long march to their promised land. A testament that God has not completely withdrawn from his people, he grants them victory over Arad at Hormah and protects them from the saraph serpents they so deserve with the bronze serpent mounted on a pole. The people then are victorious over Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan.
The Moabites, Edomites and the Ammonites are all kindred people to Israel, and God will not permit His chosen people to attack these others, lest they incur blood-guilt. Nevertheless, Balak the King of Moab is content to eliminate the Israelites, whom he likens to an "ox [that] devours the grass of the field" and devours all the country around his people (Num 22:4). Balak calls on a Syrian mystic, Balaam, who is not in the circle of the promised people, but has real spiritual power.
The Lord tells Balaam not to accept Balak's first payment to curse the Israelites. After Balak increases the reward, the Lord tells Balaam to "do exactly as I tell you." Seeking to press the limits of God's decree, the impatient Balaam sets off with the some of the princes of Moab, hoping to curse the Israelites if at all possible. To illustrate that you cannot bargain with God to do perverse things, the donkey he is rides on sees the angel of the Lord waiting to kill Balaam for his disobedience. Every one of the seven times Balaam seeks to curse the people, he ends up blessing them. In Peter's Epistles, the Epistle of Jude and Revelation, Balaam is seen as a false prophet from among the people who secretly brings in destructive heresies. Balaam then instructs Balak how to bring evil upon the people: get them to worship Baal of Peor. Finally, the zeal of Phinehas (25:6-14) keeps God's wrath from consuming the people.
Music: Chopin's "Nocturne No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 9" performed by Vadim Chaimovich. www.musopen.com
Numbers clearly shows how terror strikes when the people of God will not maintain sustained worship of the God who is in their midst; in the absence of disciplined devotion, they simply lost hold of Him and turned to murmuring and to other gods. Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers all center on the holiness of God and what it means to be a people consecrated to Him. Christians are consecrated to God through the blood of Jesus Christ and the sacraments; to profane Christ and His covenant is to bring an even greater wrath upon yourself than that which befell the unfaithful Israelites.
Beginning in Numbers Chapter 13, twelve tribal leaders, one from each tribe, are selected by Moses himself to scout out the whole of the promised land in a 40-day reconnaissance mission. Meeting in Kadesh after the 40-days, Caleb urges Moses to attack the land, but vast majority of the other men say "we cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us," describing the giants or "nephilim" that inhabit some of the land and inciting the people to agree with them. Although God asked them to make a stand for the faith, they psyche themselves out saying "we felt like mere grasshoppers and so we must have seemed to them" (13:32ff).
At the sound of the majority's account, the people complain about what God has done for them and speak of a mutiny against Moses, moving to select another leader to take them back to Egypt. When Caleb and Joshua try to quell the rebellion they are nearly stoned to death. God then says, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they."
A true leader and living martyr, Moses intercedes for the people by saying that the nations know that God is in the midst of this people. If He were to kill them all here, people would say that "The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert" (14:15). Moses knows that God will not clean the slate of those guilty who will not give up their guilt and their sinful ways. Instead, he admits the guilt of the people and appeals to the steadfastness of God's love; by no means is this an appeal to God's "softness," but rather a testament of His unspeakable love for the people and willingness to provide the graces of repentance.
Answering Moses' intercession in the midst of His wrath, God swears by Himself and His glory that He will pardon the people but not one of those who have already spurned Him ten times will see the promised land. He then fates the people to wander for forty years for their supreme lack of devotion, "forty days you spend in scouting the land, forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me" (14:34).
Immediately after God's sentencing, in Chapter 15, He provides hope by saying "When you have entered the land that I will give you..." and setting up regulations for proper worship and devotion. To establish the need for a holy Sabbath day, the Lord commands Moses to put a man who gathers wood on the sabbath to death (15:32-36). Mindful of how easily distracted and forgetful the people are, God then commands the Israelites to put tassels on the corners of their garments as a reminder; whenever they see the tassels they are to remember and keep all the commandments of the Lord. It is written, "Thus will you remember to keep all my commandments and be holy to your God. I, the Lord, am your God who, as God, brought you out of Egypt that I, the Lord, may be your God" (15:40).
While the Israelites may seem to be the most stupid, weak and unfaithful people on the face of the Earth, we realize that we are among their company. Miracles will do nothing for those who have no faith and are quickly forgotten, given the short attention span of human nature. Let us be ever-reminded of the need to be faithful and of God's indescribable steadfast love.
Music: Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Overture" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
The initial three chapters of the Book of Numbers showcase that the whole people belongs to God, the Tabernacle has a central place amidst the people, and that the Levites have a unique and extremely important duties. Throughout this time of encampment, the Levites punctiliously guard and maintain the Tabernacle, guard people against the wrath of God, and are continuously pastoring the people.
Then God commands Moses to number the all the Levites that are at least one month old. This is the first of a number of preparations God commands His people to make in order that they might survive the journey He has for them. These preparations establish norms for dealing with such issues as the unclean, suspected adulteresses and even Nazirites, those who take solemn vows of dedication to the Lord and abstain from all strong drink and fruits of the vine.
As they sojourn, the people begin to complain. Chapter 11 describes how God reacts to this obstinacy by sending the fire of the Lord to burn among them and consume the outskirts of the camp. We can see both an obvious and subtle lesson from verses 16-30. God distributes gifts to seventy elders, extending Moses' authority on those Godly men who are able to orchestrate, instruct and build the community. One man cannot build a community; the people themselves must all put their hands to the plow and make a community their own.
Although God provided for His people with a wind that "drove in quail from the sea and brought them down over the camp site," the people become greedy (11:31-34). Their ingratitude causes the Lord's wrath to flare up against the people and He strikes them with a very great plague. Throughout the 40 years in the desert the people take God's continuous miracles for granted and are punished for their actions.
Jealous of the seventy elders, the Lord reprimands Aaron and Miriam for murmuring against the Lord's anointed. Miriam herself is struck white with leprosy and banished from the camp for seven days.
Prerequisite in the formation of a community of God, the people must tremble before their Lord. Because the people will not reverence God, He expresses His justice through a form of severe mercy, cutting out that which is cancerous from among them.
Modern Christians may marvel at the responsibilities God placed on His people, but the Book of Hebrews relates that God has raised the bar even higher for the people under His new covenant. God is merciful, but when we refuse to accept God the way He is, we remove ourselves from this mercy. God is patient with us, but He requires us to prepare for the pilgrimage He has for us.
Music: Mozart's "Sonata No. 14 In C Minor" performed by Vadim Chaimovich. www.musopen.com
The modern Christian may be somewhat unfamiliar with the specifics of Israel's 40-year desert experience. Their sojourn begins in Exodus and the early sections of the Book of Numbers, ever guided by the teachings of Leviticus.
Although the Israelites gained physical freedom after crossing the Red Sea, they ceaselessly complained and rebelled throughout their journey despite witnessing many miracles. These texts clearly affirm that miracles do not create believers. Throughout the Book of Exodus, Moses is a Christ-like mediator between God and his people, who is unceasingly devoted to their welfare. The problems Moses has leading and uniting his community mirror the problems of the Catholic Church in America; we would do well to follow Moses' example and unite as many capable volunteers as possible in one mission for the glory of God.
Although God intended their journey to be a period of preparation for the people of His Kingdom, Israel, a slave mentality of dependence and passivity mark these 40 years (actually 38 years and 10 months). The people are not gracious for His gifts and repeatedly allow the trivial pleasures of slavery (leeks, onions, melons, etc.) to trump their new life of freedom and the bread from heaven; they are simply unwilling to undergo the suffering that following God brings upon them. To illustrate, this appetitive people would rather have died in Egypt with full stomachs than have received their freedom (Ex 16:3).
Though all Israel is a holy nation of priests, the tribe of the Levites are particularly chosen to offer the sacrifice of the altar. God's favor is not exclusive to any one tribe, however, for Joshua the Ephraimite succeeds Moses and later David of Judah becomes Israel's great king. Throughout the Book of Leviticus, the overarching principle is a call to be holy as God is holy. This does not apply only to the Levites, but to all of Israel.
The idolatrous worshiping of the Golden Calf directly follows the revelation at Sinai and prompts Moses' shattering of the first set of the tablets. Because of the weakness of their character, the people need strong, hero-like leaders and a visible tabernacle in order that they will not turn to idolatry.
In the first chapter of the Book of Numbers, we see a military census enrolling all capable men over the age of 20 (excluding the Levites), totaling over 600,000. The census prepares the people for the battles that God will have them fight, knowing that they can only gain victory by His hand. The military formation of Israel places the Levites in charge of the tabernacle so they might be a bridge to God but also a barrier between God's wrath and the people.
God's special plan for the Levites is a great gift that comes with great responsibility. The official mediators between God and Israel, those Levites who do not adhere to their duties (like Aaron's two sons) receive great punishment. In the Book of Malachi, God expounds on the responsibilities of priests and his great wrath ("I will strew dung in your faces...") toward those priests who are not faithful (2:1 ff). As the responsibilities of our Catholic priests are even greater, God's just anger will fall even more upon unholy priests of His new covenant.
Returning to our study in Exodus 3:4-22, the call of Moses on at Sinai showcases a veritable theology of God. The God of the Hebrews is not a mere tribal God, for He is "I Am Who Am."
Egypt is the classical Biblical metaphor for oppression and worldliness. In our modern context, we, too, need to escape from the "bondage of Egypt." Christ has broken the shackles of our slavery to sin, the world, the flesh and the devil; we can further "despoil Egypt" if we adopt its wisdom for God's mission (cf. Ex 3:22).
In Chapter 4, Moses questions his credentials to be God's deliverer for Israel. To empower him on his mission, God gives him the power to show signs: the ability to turn his staff into a serpent, to spread and heal leprosy and to turn water into blood on dry land (4:2-9). When he protests that he speaks with a stutter, God permits Aaron to be Moses' spokesman in a concession.
On his way to Egypt, Exodus 4:24-26 describes how God's anger wells up towards Moses who has been putting off circumcising of his sons. Neither Moses nor his wife Zipporah were thrilled with the idea of their sons' suffering, but the Midianite matron ends up circumcising her sons to honor God's covenant (cf. Gen 17:1-14). This passage is an object lesson in not procrastinating and not taking God's commands lightly.
Chapters 5-11 highlight Pharaoh and the plagues of Egypt. In some instances Pharaoh hardens his heart against God and in other instances God Himself hardens the Pharaoh's heart. The plagues upon Egypt are symbolic reminders that juxtapose the Egyptians with the people of God, set apart and bought for a price.
In Exodus 12, God describes the Passover to Moses. Although the Passover meal has evolved over time, Catholics would do well to understand the Biblical depth of the Eucharist, which has many profound roots in the Passover.
As the Israelites depart from Egypt and approach the Red Sea, the theme of deliverance begins in full-throttle. A testament to the hearts of the people, almost immediately after the river pulls back the people begin to doubt and complain. All the strong men of Israel would die before entering the Promised Land.
In Chapter 19, the Israelites reach Sinai where they receive the Ten Commandments. Interestingly, Modern Jews and Christians tend to group these commands in different ways, sometimes out of a desire to highlight certain of theological principles. St. Augustine's writings frame the current Catholic compilation which tends to group the 'first' and 'second' Commandments. A traditional Protestant enumeration would be a brief first commandment and a long second commandment that expounds on the decrees against worshiping graven images.
Regardless of the enumeration, we must strive never to take the Lord's name, breaking any habits we may have adopted. It is also crucial not to work or pursue our own vain pleasures on Sundays (cf. Is 56, 58). Paramount is honoring our father and mother, for although they are not without error, we must respect those who represent the authority of God to a young child. If we keep this proper order, bowing before God and His Commands, we will be greatly blessed. Our study seeks only to open doors of the text, as it would take dozens of sessions to unwrap the treasures God gives His people at the end of Exodus and the ways we can learn from them.
The goal of the Law is Jesus Christ. God gave these Ten Commandments are to prepare man to receive God and for God to embrace us. They frame our morality and keep us from making concessions. Mindful of the fact that we are not Jews living under the Old Covenant, the Law and God's regulations for Tabernacle worship are of great benefit in keeping a Christian steadfast to Christ on his journey out of Egypt into the Kingdom of God.
Despite the popularity of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, modern Christians tend not to study the Book of Exodus. Its name taken from the Hebrew for "the way out," this second book of the Bible speaks of the quintessential human desire to depart from misery and begin rejoicing. The well-known tale of Moses' birth and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt only account for a third of the book; the other two-thirds cover the wanderings in the desert.
Thematically, Mt. Sinai (sometimes referred to as Mt. Horeb) represents two things in Exodus: covenant and its specification, the Law. Prayerful study into the depths of these themes reveals that we will be bound to slavery unless we follow God's commands, internalizing them and making them our own. In addition, one sees that modern Christians can unite themselves spiritually with the Israelites in a pilgrimage out of secular bondage into a new life in God.
God makes a covenant with his people in a wonder that exceeds Fatima in its magnitude and in the number of witnesses. If the Ten Commandments typify the covenant and the law, the crossing of the Red Sea symbolizes God's moment of deliverance from the hands of their oppressors. As Paul later explains, this latter event is a prefigurement of baptism via the cloud [baptism in the Holy Spirit] and the sea [water baptism] (cf. 1 Cor 10:2).
The final sixteen chapters focus on tabernacle worship and contain many Catholic themes. This portable tent is the dwelling place of the Lord, situated in the midst of the people, a veritable Emmanuel principle. So specific are the provisions of worship that the people begin to acquire a great reverence for God. Fundamental to the proper worship of God, reverence is intensely personal; we, too, must "Take off [our] shoes" and present ourselves to the Lord in spirit and in truth (Ex 3:5).
A brief study of Egyptian history will place Exodus in its proper context. Not long before the birth of Moses, the native Egyptians finally expelled their long-hated foreign rulers, the Semitic Hyksos that are sometimes called "the Shepherd Kings." Xenophobia quickly set in and the Pharaohs began to attack and enslave foreign populations within Egypt. Forgetting the merits that the Semite Joseph had once gained in their courts, they rounded up all the remaining Semites (of Hebrews, the forerunners of the nation of Israel) and enslaved them, even exerting population control by slaughtering male newborns.
In order that Moses might not join the ranks of the slain newborns, his parents send him down the Nile in a papyrus-and-bitumen basket. Providentially, the Pharaoh's daughter finds him floating, embraces him into her family and gives him access to all the wisdom of Egypt. The up-and-coming prince's love for his people lead him to strike and kill a man in their defense. Immediately fleeing to the land of Midian, he spends 40 years in the wilderness growing in discipline by years of searching for God.
While tending his flock one day, Moses catches sight of a bush burning on Mt. Horeb that is not consumed by the flames. This event is a powerful Christophany wherein God manifests himself in another form. God speaks "So indeed the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them. Come now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites out of Egypt" (Ex 3:9-10). Moses slowly accepts this commission and becomes the leader of Israel.
Paul's argument in Romans uses forensic logic and a precise application of key verses from Genesis to stress that Abraham did not earn the righteousness that was credited to him by faith (cf. Gen 15:6). Our faith must be an obedient faith and our obedience must be in faith; believing for decades and learning from his prior failures, Abraham's faith grew to a point that he was willing to sacrifice his uniquely beloved son Isaac to follow God's commands. It is impossible to earn salvation, but an active faith that produces good works is necessary for one's salvation (cf. Jas 2:20).
Abraham's spiritual pilgrimage took him from Ur in modern-day Iraq to Haran in modern-day Iran and then to the land of Canaan, the land of promise. Sojourning in tents for decades, this city-boy from Ur trusts in God more and more at every step of the journey. Abraham's witness should convict all believers to allow the Word of God, especially His promises, to dwell richly in them, leading them on a pilgrimage wherein they begin to lose their love of the world and become increasingly attached to the things of heaven (cf. Heb 11).
Both the offering of Isaac and Melchizedek (my righteous king) the Prince of Salem (Prince of Peace) prefigure Christ. In reference to the former, Isaac must have been a teenager when he journeyed with his father to Moriah, and Rabbinical literature confirms that he willingly stretched out his arms to be bound on the altar. Just as Jews imagine their prayers being offered to God like Isaac's willingly spread and bound hands; Christians should ever be mindful that our prayers are offered to God through Christ's outstretched arms bound to the cross. Turning to the Book of Hebrews, the words of Genesis exactly foreshadow the crucifixion (11:17-19).
Jacob's dream during his flight after stealing the birthright from his slothful brother Esau shows us that God is always with us wherever we travel (Gen 28:10). Jacob the con-man is humbled by an even craftier man, Laban who exploits him for 21 years. When Laban's daughters take the household gods upon their departure from Laban, it is a claim on the inheritance, not an effort to continue idolatry. Over time, Jacob realizes he must make peace with his brother Esau. In his weakness after losing the wrestling match to the Angel of God, Jacob finally surrenders everything to God and is renamed Israel. We then hear of Joseph, his beloved-son, who becomes a Christ-figure when he is hated because he tells the truth and will save his family by doing so.
Genesis is ultimately about the relationship about God and man, and every Christian must recapitulate the spiritual dimension of each of these stories.
Much has been said about the Fathers of the faith, but the Mothers of the faith are also strong characters throughout Genesis. When Peter praises the "reverent and chaste" behavior of women he uses Sarah as an example (1Pt 3:6), but Abraham's wife was no doormat! New Testament exhortations for women to be submissive must not be construed as a command for women to make themselves in victims, rather they are to be pillars of strength and obedience by virtue of their faith in God.
Music: "Airs des Silvains" from the album "Rameau and Leclair" by Philharmonia Baroque. www.magnatune.com
The first masterful 11 Chapters of Genesis set the stage for a drama between God and man peerless among all other written literature. One must not overlook the importance of God's covenant in Genesis. A covenant has two parts: it establishes a deeply personal relationship and defines the specific points on which that relationship depends. The personal name of God, Yahweh, appears throughout Torah whenever it is in reference to a divine covenant.
Through God's great mercy, the initial fault of Adam brings the great promises of the proto-evangelium: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head while you strike at His heel" (cf. Gen 3:15).
These early narratives of Genesis are often foolishly dismissed as mere children's stories, but they contain deep eternal truths. The narrative of Cain and Abel shows the depth of sin's destruction and a foreshadowing of Christ: the sacrificer who himself is sacrificed (cf. Gen 4). God's abhorrence of sin, righteousness and redemption through water come to the forefront in the story of Noah (cf. Gen 6-7). The Tower of Babel shows men's aspirations to the heights of life on their own terms; God confuses their purpose to bring about His purpose (cf. Gen 11).
Genesis 10:18-28 reveals an often overlooked and historically misinterpreted passage that is developed throughout the rest of the book of Genesis. It contains the prophesy of how Canaan is to willfully sin as did his father Ham and how these sins will bind Canaan's posterity, the Amorites, in slavery. Noah juxtaposes his cursing of Canaan with his promise to Shem when he says "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!" (Gen 10:25). The descendants of Shem will become the Semitic peoples, the forerunners of monotheistic religion. Noah also prophesies that the Japhethites (Europeans and Asians) will one day come to dwell in the tents of the Semites and learn their religion.
Starting in Genesis 12 we see that God, the divine father of every human family, chooses a particular family to be the origin of His chosen people. Despite the fact that his earthly father was an idolater, his Heavenly Father calls Abram into covenant and to be the father of our faith. Paul expounds the fatherhood of our faith when he writes, "Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness" (Rom 4:3). His constant belief in God opens him up to receive God's gift, His transformation into a creature of righteousness, inasmuch as he places complete trust in God.
Music: “Airs des Silvains? from the album “Rameau and Leclair? by Philharmonia Baroque. www.magnatune.com
What denotes a proper interpretation of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis? When one begins to discusses Biblical interpretation, the terms "fundamentalist" and "literalist" quickly emerge. We derive the first of these two terms from a group of late-19th Century Christians who adhered to a set of fundamental beliefs. Earnest Christians who adhere to the Church's core teachings may be improperly perceived as radical Fundamentalists, groups of self-appointed moral policemen who cannot stop imposing their will on others. The second of these two terms, "literalist," has also taken on a negative connotation in popular parlance. Many Christians who are faithful to God's word are considered to interpret the Bible so literally that they throw logical reasoning into the wind and believe outlandish premises like that King Herod actually was a furry little fox (cf. Lk 13:32). Rather than say Catholics are literalists and associate them with a pejorative term, it would be better to affirm Catholics as believers who seek to believe and obey all that the Bible teaches according to God's intention in giving us His text, believing it to be without error and to contain all the things vital to our salvation and growth in holiness.
The question of how to interpret the Bible does not arise from problems that individuals have with the Biblical text itself but from a disagreement over Biblical issues. Three such issues emerge: (1) Do we believe in Biblical miracles? (2) Do we believe in Biblical prophesy? (3) How are we to understand "myth," particularly the "creation myth"? How a group of Christians answers these three questions directly guides the way they interpret the Bible. For instance, the historic Churches' interpretation of Scripture leads them to a belief in seven Sacraments instead of two.
Far from merely psychoanalyzing the human authors of Scripture, one does well to consider the divine intent of their words within the normal canons of language. One must never subtract the mystery of God from His Word, lest he render it flat and meaningless while multiplying his sorrows. Let us be confident in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word" (66:2).
In this light, we turn to the two creation stories in Genesis. Some good points to establish from the start are that the meaning of the Hebrew word "day" neither precludes nor requires a 24-hour period and, interestingly, the text refers to "morning" and "evening" before the creation of the sun. From the start of Genesis, it emerges that God creates from nothing and then orders his creation. It is clear that God makes man from dust and forms him in His own image and likeness. Despite being moral, attracted to beauty and goodness and finding his meaning hidden in God, when given the opportunity to chose between life and death, he disbelieves and disobeys. As Paul establishes, all men have sinned not only because of Adam's sin but also due to their own delight in disbelief and disobedience.
Pope Pius X's Against Modernism rebukes those who follow the lie that the Scriptures contain error or are not important to follow. St. Irenaeus says that heretics approach the Scriptures like one who destroy a mosaic of a man by rearranging its tiles into an image of a fox. When Paul says "the letter kills and the spirit gives life," he only seeks to say that the letter apart from the spirit brings condemnation and establishes that the letter along with the spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit guides us as we interpret the Scriptures, starting with the most central passages and then moving onto the more obscure points, always abiding by the living tradition and Magisterium of the Church. Unless are constrained by a right interpretation of the Scriptures, which are a "constitution of the people of God," we are prone to numerous divisions.
Let us not be so presumptuous as to deny our identity as created beings or the fact that we have an infinitely powerful creator. By humbly approaching the Scriptures buttressed by sacred Tradition and the Magisterium will we be able to see that the first eleven chapters of Genesis contain the framework of the entire Bible: the creation and ordering of the universe; the sin of Adam which we recapitulate; the prophesies after the fall that reestablish an implicit covenant and establish hope for a second Adam and a second Eve; the wayward nature of the world; Noah's salvation through water as a prefigurement of Baptism; and that the prohibition of eating meat with blood in it is a key to the sanctity of life. We will be richly blessed by respecting and savoring the Biblical texts, asking the questions that God presses to our hearts and thanking Him for all the blessings He bestows upon us.
As mentioned last week, these recordings are from a while ago (2005), so apologies if the quality is not as good as usual.
Music: Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. www.musopen.com
Way back in September of 2006 we posted a preview of "The Foundations of Biblical Thinking." This study of Torah has remained one of our most downloaded episodes, so by popular demand here it is in its entirety! So crucial to the Christian life, we will enter into Pentateuch's time-tested wisdom and find that the more we understand these first five books of the Bible, the more rest will come to our souls (cf. Jer 6:16).
Let us remember what Christ said "For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments [referring to Torah] and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Mat 5:19-20). In addition, one cannot grasp Christ without a firm knowledge of the Old Testament.
Only by feeding upon Christ in Word as well as Sacrament will He transform us into Himself. These sacred texts are inspired by the Holy Spirit, without error and are ordained by God to be the means of solid instruction for His people. As the Old Testament is filled with riddles, however, one must dig deeply and prayerfully enter into them in order to it in order to adequately enrich ourselves – we bring folly upon ourselves when we ignore it.
The Old Testament offers four key gifts to Christians: (1) it points to Christ as the messiah and the savior of Israel; (2) it deepens our understanding of Christ by enabling us to read the New Testament in the light of the Old, and vice versa; (3) it provides a type of spiritual road-map for life, describing a saga which we are all fated to relive; and (4) it reformats our thinking to focus more on God, opening the doors into the infinite recesses of the Divine Heart and His sublime mysteries. What bountiful treasures await those who proceed in faith!
Far more than a myth, the Book of Genesis begins with the verse, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (1:1). In the distant beginnings of the human race, this verse establishes the most important things. Genesis is a book of origins and generations that follows the Hebrew logic that we understand the things of God by understanding His beginning.
If we humbly follow the Word to God on His terms instead of our own, He will increase our faith and will preserve us from doubting the veracity of these books. We simply must take these texts more seriously than we would children's stories; but the fact that some consider Genesis to be a series of mere fables highlights our need to interpret Torah correctly. By an earnest study of Torah throughout these fourteen episodes, we will gain a firm foundation to study the entire Bible, equipping ourselves to spread God's Word to the nations.
Remember that this series and all our other material is available on our webstore, siministries.org/Store. Thanks to Adam the Catholic for leaving us a review on iTunes - if you enjoy these podcasts please take a couple of minutes to leave us a short review there, as that will help us reach new listeners. Finally, this episode marks our first foray into music, and your feedback on that (and anything else, for that matter!) would be greatly appreciated: podcast@siministries.org.
Music: The Symphony No. 9, opus 95, "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak from musopen.com.
While every Gospel contains a Resurrection account, Luke makes certain key insights. "At dawn [having departed while it was still dark], women travel to Jesus' tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back" (24:1-2). Perplexed at the absence of Jesus' body, their confusion changed to fear when they saw two men in "dazzling garments" come to them. In an age before bleach, these women were convinced these were angels and "bowed to the ground" (v. 5). Upon hearing the angels' narrative, "they remembered His words" and were assured of His resurrection (v. 8).
These women, Mary of Magdala, Joanna and Mary the mother of James then travel to the eleven, but are not able to convince any of them except Peter. Only in Luke do we then get an account of Jesus on the road to Emmaus happening on the same day of His resurrection. After revealing to them "every passage of Scripture which referred to Him" on this road, He "pronounced the blessing, then broke the bread and began to distribute it to them" (v. 27, 30). At this, their eyes were opened, He vanished from their sight and they said "Were not our hearts burning inside us as he talked to us?" Let us not overlook the fact that their hearts were ablaze at the Hebrew Scriptures despite His disappearance and celebration of the Eucharist.
Starting in verse 36, Jesus reappears to the eleven, standing in their midst. Although Luke does not mention Thomas' absence, the other Gospel writers confirm that he was not present for this episode. Too awestruck to honor his request to "handle me," wishing to prove to them His resurrection, they "disbelieved for joy" (v. 39, 41). Again speaking of the Hebrew Scriptures, He then opened their minds, confirmed His resurrection and said, "And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, You are witnesses of these things and behold I send the promise of my father upon you, but stay in [Jerusalem] until you are clothed with power from on high" (v. 46-47). Strikingly similar to the opening of the Book of Acts, these verses reflect a sort of summation of all the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and end with the Ascension in verse 51. Luke's extremely concise writing here highlights the importance of knowing Him in the Hebrew Scriptures and compels His believers to spread Him to all nations in order to save men from their sins.
Although Chapter 22 depicts Jesus' final Passover beginning with Him blessing a cup, let us not be confused that this is the Institution of the Eucharist; he reveals Himself to us in bread and wine at the climax of the meal. Instead of following the order of the Passover meal to say "this is the Passover," upon the revelation of the hidden piece of unleavened bread, when Christ brings forth this bread, He says "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." It is after the meal that He says, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
Luke then provides a recapitulation of the earlier conversation while at table. Thus, his reference to Judas perfectly is logical, for the other synoptics clearly show the betrayer leaving their company before the Eucharist (v. 20 ff).
As we mentioned last week, Luke provides a wonderful account of Jesus' words to Peter during the meal, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you...but I prayed for your faith may not fail..." (vv. 31-32). This is akin to other Biblical descriptions of Satan the accuser.
Bewildered after Christ's arrest, the man who was first to draw his sword in defense of Christ is the first to commit apostasy. Christ foreknows His sin and still trusts in His leadership, for He says at the meal "when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren" (v. 32).
According to His custom, He travels to the Mount of Olives to pray after the meal under the full Passover moon. In agony, Portraying His supreme obedience to God, He prays, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (v. 42).
Perhaps dressed in civilian clothes to deter a riot, "there came a crowd, and the man called Judas...was leading them." One of Luke's key details is the retort "Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?" (v. 49). After this, Luke gives the brief account of Peter's sword-wielding in Gethsemane, the apostle's betrayal, the fateful glance upon the face of Jesus and the start of Peter's repentance.
While incarcerated, Jesus is maltreated and mocked. At the end of Chapter 22, the Jews have united in a desire to kill Him and decided to present Him to Pilate.
Upon hearing that Jesus is a Galilean, Pilate takes Him to Herod Antipas, who is in Jerusalem for the Passover. Not deeming Him worthy of death, the worldly, shrewd Herod and his men treat Him with contempt before sending Him back to Pilate dressed in a purple robe. Pilate is hesitant to kill Jesus (let us remember his wife's warning, accounted in the other Gospels), wanting instead to "chastise him and release him." At the incessant crowd's demands, Pilate agrees to crucify Him in order to deter an insurrection and maintain his Governorship.
In 23:26, Luke's account then depicts the Way of the Cross. Simon of Cyrene (North Africa) assists Jesus and He speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem to beware an hour when even greater disorder will come: "do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children...For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" (v. 28, 31).
Mocking Him all the way to the cross, "And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and on the left" (v. 23). While the rulers scoff at Him, Jesus says to the good thief at His right, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (v. 43). Paradise, a term that literally means a garden or a blessed state speaks to this man's eternal resting place, even though he may have needed a time of purification.
Even in Luke's truncated transcription of these events, he provides key details that exemplify Christ's deity during His last earthly moments. Only Luke relates that the "curtain of the temple was torn in two."
"'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!' And having said this He breathed His last" (v. 46).
The multitudes, upon seeing His crucifixion, returned home beating their breasts. Verse 50 shows a fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah 53, as Joseph of Arimathea lays Christ's body in a rich man's tomb. Before the Sabbath rest, the women hurried to prepare his body and prepared to return to the tomb on the first day of the week.
Luke's depiction of the Olivet Discourse is a wonderful, powerful message. Verse 5 begins with the warning, "the day will come when not one stone [of the Temple] will be left on another, but it will all be torn down" and "take care not to be misled. Many will come in my name saying, 'I am he' [...] do not follow them." He assures us, "the end will not be at once," meaning to state the various stages in the eschatological events to come.
All who are in the world during the times of cataclysms must be radically dependent on the Father to survive for any length of time, and many will win the crown of martyrdom: "some of you will be put to death [...] yet not a hair of your head will be harmed. By patient endurance you will save your lives" (v. 12-19). Jesus warns the crowds to leave Jerusalem when soldiers surround it, good advice not only because David's City will later be sacked by Gentiles in 70 A.D., but because it will experience a final destruction. He then speaks of the foolishness that is fearful speculation as to the timing of such events. Rather, He confirms that a living in radical obedience to the Gospel is the only way to heed these words spoken on the Mount of Olives.
The Parable of the Fig Tree illustrates the nearness of God's Kingdom and establishes that succumbing to "the cares of this life" is equally destructive to drunkenness or indulgence.
On Wednesday before His crucifixion, the high priests and scribes plot Jesus' death with Judas.
The following day, Thursday, Jesus and His Twelve celebrate the Passover. Jesus celebrates the first Eucharist with His disciples, effectively saying that He is the passover sacrifice who will die for them. Immediately after this, He takes the Eucharistic cup and says "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you". Though some believe Luke places Judas at the meal during the Eucharist, the Gospel of John explicitly contradicts this. Luke instead is trying to summarize Judas' role in the Passover meal.
Let us not overlook what Jesus says to Peter: "Simon, Simon! Remember that Satan has asked for you, to sift you all like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may never fail. You in turn [even though you will betray me] must strengthen your brothers" (v. 31-33).
Verses 35-38 may initially seem difficult to interpret, but a closer look reveals that instead of an assent to violence or statement of God's abandonment, but He is simply stating that this is a night where everything will be turned upside down and therefore all must be ready.
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Starting in Luke 19:28, we join Jesus in his final pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. From the time of Christ until the destruction of the Temple, the Passover reaches its highest point of prominence in the Jewish liturgical calendar. Swelling three-times its size, the crooked, oriental streets of Jerusalem are crowded with pilgrims and lambs to be slaughtered.
Juxtaposing the violent end that will befall Him, He enters the city in a peaceable manner – by riding a colt (also referred to as an ass in some translations). A combination of the large crowds and the inspiring, Messianic-laden liturgies that take place in the Temple make for a potential powder-keg situation. Upon seeing the renowned miracle-worker riding on the cold, the crowd erupts with shouts of "Blessed is He who comes as king in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Though His disciples try to bring order to the palm-bearing crowd, Jesus affirms that such a greeting is in accord with the Father's will, for He says "If they were to keep silence, I tell you the very stones would cry out." A sort of prefigurement of His Second Coming, one does well not to overlook the multiple layers of His entrance, specifically the focus on Christ as king.
In verse 45, Jesus ejects the traders and those selling concessions from the Court of the Gentiles, saying "my house is meant to be a house of prayer [for all nations]." This event takes place on the Monday before His crucifixion, and showcase His might. Not only does he expel the money-changers and practically gain complete control of the Temple Mount, but He confounds the questions of the priests and Pharisees who question his authority.
After they question Him, he directs the biting Parable of the Tenants at these priests and scribes. In this parable, a man planted a vineyard but his wicked tenants kill everyone he sends to reclaim what is rightfully his, even to the point of killing the master's beloved son. He shows how these Jewish authorities are acting exactly as the tenants do in His parable: in their hatred for Christ and inability to accept Him as the Messiah, they throw away all reason and seek to kill Him. At this point, they greatly increase the number of spies they send into the Temple to question Jesus, seeking to catch Him off-guard that they might deliver Him into the Governor's court on a charge or public disorder, or worse. In every instance, Jesus outwits these adversaries with great rabbinical arguments (cf. v. 20-25 and v. 27-40).
In the week leading up to the Crucifixion, Jesus teaches daily in the Temple and retires over the Mount of Olives into Bethany each night. Notable teachings of this week include a warning to avoid the religious pride of the Pharisees and an affirmation of God's pleasure with the poor widow he sees giving all she had to the temple treasury.
After He leaves Jerusalem for Bethany on Tuesday night, He predicts not only His passion and the destruction of the cataclysm to come, although the Disciples cannot seem to understand these teachings. Next week we will study Jesus' Olivet Discourse and those other events leading up to the Last Supper.
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Our study in Chapter 18 begins with two classic parables that urge religious individuals to go substantially deeper in their faith: The Corrupt Judge and the Pharisee and the Publican. In the first, Jesus again (cf. 11:5-10) teaches His disciples to persist in prayer, "you ought always to pray and not lose heart." In the second, He exhorts His disciples to humility and upbraids the haughty and self-righteous.
Verses 15-17 describe Jesus blessing the children faithful mothers bring to Him; these seldom-used verses form some of the Scriptural basis for infant Baptism. Far more than a magical bath, one can trace infant Baptism throughout the Early Church in the writings of Hippolytus and Origen.
In verse 18, a pious, precocious rich man questions Jesus about inheriting eternal life. Jesus speaks rather coldly to him at first, but looks with love upon this young man's earnestness. He says to him, "There is one thing further you must do. Sell all you have and give to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me" (v. 22). Jesus advises us to take on worldly obligations only when we are confident they are God's will for us: "I solemnly assure you, there is no one who has left home or wife or brothers, parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive a plentiful return in this age and life everlasting in the age to come" (v. 29-30). He seeks to teach us that only in freedom from wealth and debt can we love to our brothers and sisters as He would.
Taking the Twelve aside, Jesus then foreshadows what will happen to Him in Jerusalem, but "His utterance remained obscure to them, and they did not grasp His meaning" (v. 34). Traveling through Jericho on the way up to Jerusalem, He then heals a blind man because of his persistence and faith.
Upon reaching Jericho, Jesus meets the short, chief tax collector named Zacchaeus. Because of his diminutive stature, this man climbs a tree to see Jesus. At the sight of this man in the tree, Jesus calls "Zacchaeus, hurry down, I mean to stay at your house today" (19:5) In the course of a meal with Jesus, this rich but sinful man confesses, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much" (v. 8). In a powerful scene, the Son of God responds by saying, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost" (v. 9-10).
As He and the Twelve draw near to Jerusalem, He describes the Parable of the Sums of Money, a profound teaching that concludes our study. Also known as the Parable of the Talents, many are familiar with the premise: "A man of noble birth went to a faraway country to become its king, and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves and gave them ten talents each, saying to them, 'Invest this until I get back'" (v. 12-13).
When the nobleman returns, he summons these slaves before him in order to see what they have done with their gifts. Learning that the first slave, whom he gave ten talents, has made a profit of ten more talents, he gives this slave authority over ten cities. The second slave has done likewise, gaining five talents, and gains control of five cities. However, one slothful or perhaps fearful slave reveals that he has buried his talent and gained nothing. The master casts this slave out after giving his one talent to the man who had ten. Thus Jesus speaks to God's expectation that we will make a spiritual return on those gifts He has bestowed upon us, and warns"whoever has will be given more, but the one who has not will lose the little he has" (v. 26). This is the lesson He seeks to teach the Twelve as He enters Jerusalem to be captured and crucified.
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Chapter 15 contains three classic parables, each targeting the self-righteous and speaking of the need to rejoice and repent. Jesus likens his close contact with sinners to that of a shepherd who risks death to save his lost sheep. Unlike the murmuring Pharisees, we must seek the lost, encourage our pastors to seek out the lost and then rejoice when sinners repent. The parable of the woman who finds her lost silver coin emphasizes our need to rejoice at the finding of the lost.
In the famous parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus describes a man and his two sons. One of these sons squanders his inheritance on a sinful lifestyle before hitting rock bottom, and, coming to his senses, returns to his father. At this, the father calls for a great feast and reinstates him into the family. The other son, obedient throughout his entire life, has irrational hatred towards his brother and refuses to enter the feast. The father closes with, "It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found."
In Chapter 16, Jesus continues to teach in parables. The shrewd but dishonest steward who regains his master's approval illustrates the superior ability of worldly men to make friends among their own kind. Jesus encourages us to devote considerable time and money for the sake of the Kingdom, reminding the money-loving Pharisees "you cannot serve God and mammon."
Verses 14–18 show that the law has not passed away but that the new covenant heightens its requirements. For proof of this, one only needs to look at His interpretation of the law in regards to entering the Kingdom and the question of divorce. He then says, "the law and the prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently." By "violently," Christ does not mean we work for salvation, but that we must be willing to toil as we embrace a radical discipleship.
The parable of poor Lazarus and the Rich Man shows the ease with which those who in their lifetime receive many good things without any concern for the poor lose their place in the Kingdom.
Chapter 17 provides firm warnings against sin and the punishment that is due those who lead others into it. His teachings are so strong that the disciples ask, "Increase our faith!" To this He responds, "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, 'Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
Of the ten lepers Jesus heals in verse 13, only one, a foreigner, returns to thank him. May we awaken to realize that we too often are like one of the other nine: greatly blessed but thankless. Jesus wishes for us to thank Him for all we have and then realize that "we are unworthy servants; we have only done what is our duty."
Verses 20-37 juxtapose the final, triumphant coming of the Son of man with the current generation that rejects Him. In these He also warns His disciples not to speculate about time of the parousia, a destruction that will come quickly when men will be taken out of the world. Note how Jesus' statements do not confirm a sort of pre-millenial "Rapture" that is popular among some Christians, but that He will sustain those who are truly faithful throughout epic tribulations.
Timeless Parables and True Discipleship
Beginning in Luke 12:13, we see that Jesus' teachings sharply contrast worldly notions of fiscal prudence and advocate extreme trust in God's provisions. Speaking tenderly to his disciples, Jesus is serious when he says "do not live in fear, little flock ... sell what you have and give alms."
Jesus gives an unprecedented promise to those who live justly and are prepared for the Day of the Lord's Coming, saying in a parable, "blessed are those servants who the master finds well-awake on his return, for ... the Master ... will put on an apron, seat them at table, and proceed to wait them."
Jesus warns, much will be required of those to whom much has been given, and also establishes, "I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited! I have a baptism to receive [His suffering and death]. What an anguish I feel till it is over! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?" He answers, "the contrary is true ... I have come for division," prophesying that His words will even divide families.
In Luke 12:57, Jesus confirms the ancient idea of a purgatory, a time of purgation from sin prior to heaven, reminding us to settle our debts to God and our fellows now rather than later.
Chapter 13 begins full-throttle with urgent calls to penance, "you will all come to [death] unless you reform." After repentance, Jesus calls His disciples to bear fruit. Like a barren fig tree, He will cut those down who consistently bear no fruit.
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate." Many will come and press claims of their closeness to Christ, but he will say "away from me, you evildoers!" to those who are not true disciples. The Chapter ends with Jesus pining for the conversion of Jerusalem like a parent longs for a wayward child.
A Sabbath cure opens the 14th Chapter, when Jesus heals a man with dropsy. He illuminates the lack of compassion the lawyers show toward other afflicted Jews.
In parables, Jesus teaches that "everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted" and that attending the Master's banquet should be our highest priority. The wise servant puts the Kingdom before every other responsibility, even those to a husband or a wife.
Like he stated in 9:23-27, Jesus then reminds us of the high cost of discipleship in 14:26-27. He establishes that we must put God before everything else, even if displeases those closest to us.
The cost of discipleship is everything you have, your entire life; not a penny more or a penny less. Unless you are a disciple, you are like salt that loses its flavor or was never salt to begin with, and is worthless for the "land and dung heap" alike.
At the start of Chapter 10, Jesus sends out 70 missionaries to minister to the towns of Galilee. He sends them in pairs in order that they may be a microcosm of the Church, and also because Torah establishes the validity of a claim by the testimony of two witnesses.
Making no specific provisions for the lambs that He "sends among wolves," these missionaries are radically dependent upon their Heavenly Father and others' hospitality. Notice the "wages" Jesus gives His laborers: they receive nothing beyond food and lodging. Modern Christians do well to serve Christ radically, as much as their state in life will allow.
It will be worse for the towns of Galilee who reject these missionaries than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah. The 70 become God's powerful instruments and report wondrous signs of a great shake-up in Heaven. Truly, the Kingdom of God is at hand, just waiting to be grasped.
One cannot attain His Kingdom through study alone, as Jesus said, "I offer You praise, O Father ... because what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest of children." We are foolish if we do not trust fully in Jesus' promise that He and the Father will manifest themselves to those who keep His Commandments.
Blessed are we who are able to know and follow the Messiah, for all previous generations longed for the opportunity given to us. The least in the Kingdom is greater than John the Baptist.
A lawyer then questions Christ about eternal life, and Jesus confirms that the path to Heaven is by living the two great commandments expressed in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.’ When the lawyer asks who his "neighbor" is, Jesus tells him the parable of the Good Samaritan, which calls all who hear to practice mercy. Limiting the mercy we show distances us from our heavenly Father.
The house of Martha and Mary is the site of a key scenario: Mary listens devoutly to Jesus while He warns her sister, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, one thing alone is needful." As His disciples we take Him – the only necessary thing – into every part of our lives.
Chapter 11 begins with lessons on prayer: the Lord's Prayer and teachings on importunate (persistent) prayer. In every case, the Christian prays when he asks, keeps asking and continues to ask again in hopes that the door may be opened unto him. We must be fully engaged in our faith, even if this requires much practice in prayer.
Beelzebub, "Lord of the Fly", was originally a play on words mocking the name for the Canaanite god, "the Lord Prince." By the time of the Luke's gospel, the name refers to Satan. After one exorcism, some question whether Christ is in league with Satan, but He affirms "a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand."
He exhorts those healed from demons to sanctify their lives and prepare for when the demon returns with seven others, attempting to reconquer their souls. Instead of acting like the woman who shouts praises in unbridled emotion, to truly praise Him we must "hear the word of God and keep it;" we must repent and allow the Word of God to become incarnate in our lives.
Christ gives them only the sign of Jonas, for signs and miracles alone will not produce faith. In every generation, those that seek only miracles or "religious fairy tales" are in grave error.
While at a dinner with some Pharisees, Jesus rebukes them for "washing the outside of the cup" while leaving the inside filthy; he criticizes other hypocritical acts. He also chastises the lawyers who exploit loopholes, steal and bury the key of knowledge from others. He then warns, "the blood of all the prophets shed from the of the foundation of the world may be required of this generation," and our punishment will be the same if we neglect so great a salvation. Everyone must beware the leaven of the Pharisees (especially their hypocrisy); we must have no fear about the body's death. Jesus acclaims both a fear of God and an awareness of His tender compassion and care for us. Our study concludes with promise that the Holy Spirit will be our advocate during times of persecution and a warning never to blaspheme against Him.
Beginning in Chapter 8, our study continues Luke's account of Jesus' active ministry. Accompanied by "the twelve [...], some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary, called Magdalene [...] and many others," Jesus draws large crowds when he preaches (v. 2-3).
To one great crowd, Jesus delivers the parable of the Sower and the Seed, or what we might more aptly call the Parable of the Soils. These different soils are a good illustration of a number of stages of the spiritual life. After Jesus lists the various soils, we see that each type represents richer grade of soil, and each is more able to bear and sustain a healthy spiritual life than the last. Lastly, He describes our final goal, "And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience" (v. 15). This and all the parables of this chapter relay that in order to achieve this, we must seek Him, persevere in our seeking, ask his aid and never relent.
Exhausted from His ministry, Jesus then falls asleep while traveling across the Sea of Galilee. Soon thereafter, a sudden storm of wind begins to overtake their boat. His apostles awake Him with such little faith that as soon as He has rebuked the wind and the water, he chastises them for their weak faith. How often do we act like the disciples and doubt whether God will protect His people in times of peril?
Upon arrival at the shore, we see the Lucan account of a man possessed by Legion who lives among the catacombs in the country of the Gerasenes. Confronting this man, Jesus casts out the numerous demons into a herd of swine that hurl themselves over a cliff and into the sea. Jesus then gives the healed man a mission to speak of God's miraculous power.
In verses 40 through 48, one faithful touch of Jesus' cloak heals a woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage, although the miraculous power of God will not go out into any other member of the jostling crowd surrounding Him. Jesus then raises Jairus' daughter from the dead amidst the of laughter her hired mourners (v. 49-56).
In the beginning of Chapter 9, Jesus sends out the twelve throughout the villages of Galilee with "no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money" to minister to the people through "preaching the gospel and healing" (v. 3). Even at this relatively early stage of Jesus' public ministry, Herod hears of all that has been done and seeks to see Jesus.
Upon the return of the disciples from their missionary activity, they gather with Jesus in the lonely desert area of Bethsaida. Here Jesus multiples five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed five thousand men, in addition to the accompanying women and children, with twelve baskets of food left over (v. 10-17).
Luke quickly relays crucial gospel events in verses 18-27: Peter confesses that He is "the Christ of God," Jesus speaks to the suffering He will undergo at the hands of the Jewish leaders, and Jesus describes what it means to truly be His disciple, "let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
At the Transfiguration of Jesus, John, James and Peter witness Jesus transfigured with Moses and Elijah (v. 28-36). Peter's impetuous line contrasts the voice of God calling heaven and bellowing "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him!"
As Jesus and the three return from the mountain, they witness the plea of a father whose son foams from the mouth with a demon, one whom His own disciples could not expel. Luke, unlike the other synoptic writers chronicles Jesus response to the man's request, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?" (v. 41). The words of Jesus hearken to God's complaint against His people in the 14th chapter of Numbers, where people look only for miracles and have no recourse to God or His ways. As the crowd cheers that Jesus has expelled the violent demon, Jesus reminds them that He will go to the cross for them, but they do not understand.
The conclusion of Chapter 9 showcases three teachings on discipleship. Jesus shows the price of discipleship when he says "foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head," and later "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God" and finally "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (v. 57-62). In all of these, we see how Jesus calls all of his disciples to follow Him in total self-giving.
At the start of Chapter 6, the scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus on two occasions regarding how He and His disciples observe the sabbath. Jesus implies that while the law of the Lord is perfect and provides guidance, the law is not an end in and of itself, but a means to the end – a roadmap to God, if you will.
We see the scribes and Pharisees scrutinize the actions of Jesus and His disciples, watching for even the smallest mistake and demanding a strict observance of the law. When his disciples pluck heads of grain on the sabbath, Jesus transcends their reasoning and cites David's eating the bread of the Presence, claiming "the Son of man is lord of the sabbath" (v. 3-5). On another occasion, despite knowing the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees, He heals on the sabbath after asking, "is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?" (v. 9).
In verse 12, Jesus retires "in these days" to the mountain to pray, and spends all night in prayer before appointing twelve disciples, a period of time that is akin to Mt. Sinai and Moses' preparation prior to receiving God's covenant. From his numerous disciples, Jesus selects twelve by name to be His apostles. One sees in this the continuation of the Hebrew office of "shaliach" wherein a master sends out a representative, oftentimes giving them their full power.
In verse 17, Luke first expounds on the core of Jesus' message in the Sermon on the Plain. Among these tenets, we hear, "Blessed are you when men hate you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets" (v. 20-24).
Accompanying these promises and exhortations, Jesus expounds on the following warnings, in order that we might not follow imprudent paths, most notably He says, "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets" (v. 25-26).
Jesus demands a radical adherence to all of the gospel message in one's actions. He fleshes out many ethical teachings in verses 27-38. Overall, we see that we must rely completely on God instead of desiring security or clinging to what is comfortable. If we are not radical disciples of Jesus and only take His message half-heartedly, we are no better than blind men and possess no credible Christian identity (v. 39). Verses 40-49 further describe Jesus' lofty call, containing many wonderful images and lessons for us all.
The start of Chapter 7 describes the miraculous healings in Capernaum and Nain. In the first, Jesus says of the centurion "not even in Israel have I found such faith" before healing the man's son (v. 9). Soon after this, Jesus travels to Nain and raises a young man from the dead by touching the platform on which he is being carried out of the city, saying, "Young man, I say to you, arise" (v. 14).
Somewhat unlike the depiction of John the Baptist given to us in the Gospel of John, Luke describes that the Baptizer is in need for a final answer whether or not Jesus is the Messiah. After the disciples of John describe the events in Capernaum and Nain to him, John and Jesus communicate with one another through messengers. Giving the last statement, Jesus' disciples cite elements from Isaiah, imply His Messianic identity, acclaim John's ministry and justify those who receive John's baptism.
In verse 36, Luke describes a striking incident while Jesus dines in the house of Simon, a Pharisee. During the meal, a sinful woman enters, wetting his feet with her tears, kissing them, wiping them with her hair and anointing them with oil. Jesus contrasts her devotion with the lack of honor Simon bestows upon Him. He says, "her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little" (47). Simon who is only aware of formal religion, does not break through to God and thus cannot honor Jesus in the same manner. By following Jesus' message wholeheartedly, not only do we receive His forgiveness, but break beyond formal religion to encounter Christ Himself.
In Luke 4:31 Jesus teaches at the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath. For the first time, Jesus publicly commands an unclean spirit to listen to Him, and instantly it comes out of the man. This very important event along with the healing of Peter's mother-in-law are the first episodes that bring Jesus into the public eye as a healer and miracle-worker. These form a turning point Jesus' ministry, for He is now unable to travel anywhere without large crowds following Him.
In Chapter 5, Luke opens with the catching of a multitude of fishes and Peter's confession on the Sea of Galilee where, amidst a tremendous haul of flopping fish, Peter becomes convicted, kneels down and asks Jesus to leave the boat (without realizing that there is no place to go). John's Gospel tells us that Jesus knows Peter before this event, but Luke here highlights the moment where Jesus first breaks through to the man who would become the Rock.
In verse 12, Jesus heals a man with leprosy, an event which compels "great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed." Because the recipients of Jesus' miracles do not heed his words to "tell no one," the crowds that follow Him become increasingly burdensome.
The healing of the paralytic is the dramatic moment that turns the Pharisees against Jesus. Luke says "the power of the Lord was with him to heal," a subtle reminder that Jesus did not even do miracles unless they were in accord with the will of the Father (v. 17). The room being full of dignitaries and scholars, earnest men creatively carry a paralytic up to the roof, seeking to bring him in through it and lay him before Jesus. One must note that Jesus "saw their faith," the faith of the majority in the crowd, before saying, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." Because God alone can forgive sins, this miracle forces all to decide whether He is God's chosen one or a blasphemer.
Luke then describes the call of Levi the tax collector, commanding him to "follow me" (v. 27). The Pharisees and scribes murmur at this, and Jesus responds, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (v. 31-32). His indictment of their maligned form of religion truth brings to mind the words of Fulton Sheen, "those who deny the disease make the cure impossible."
We close with the incident of verse 33, when they question "the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink."
And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." He told them a parable also: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good...'" (36-39)
Jesus makes it clear that He has not come to fit inside ordinary Judaism, but to transform the establishment entirely in accord with the Father's will. All too often, those who are the most invested in traditional ways are the most unwilling to give up their old wine and accept God's challenging invitation to new wine.
As we read of Jesus coming into Galilee, we must digest these verses and examine where we stand with God, asking Him what we must to do follow Him. We must be like Levi, a man undoubtedly engrossed in the world who left everything to follow Him. Will we be among those religious that don't leave their comfortable lifestyle to follow Him, or will we respond to Jesus in a credible way and amend our lives?
At the start of the Gospel proper, Luke focuses on John the Baptist: his ministry and his message. It seems Christians today often shrink the role of John the Baptist and the roles other Prophets in the history of salvation, and instead embrace a "let's cut to the chase" mentality. The fact that John is present at the onset of all four Gospels speaks to his priority early Christians gave him. Far more than Jesus' emcee, John is a thundering voice who preaches repentance and preparation for the one who is to come after him.
Luke's Third Chapter records events of A.D. 29 or 30, when the word of God calls John out of his repose in the wilderness and into ministry. His "baptism of repentance which led to the forgiveness of sins," while not a Sacramental Baptism, shows how God's salvific grace acts throughout all history and looks forward to the grounds of forgiveness through Jesus Christ (v. 3). John is the "herald's voice in the desert, crying [...]" of the necessity of preparation for reception of the Gospel:
"You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Give some evidence that you mean to reform. Do not begin by saying to yourselves, 'Abraham is our father.' I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (v. 7-9)
Condemning injustices of all kinds, John's ministry is so electric that men of all kinds ask him whether or not he is the Christ. He clarifies that "there is one to come who is mightier than I [...] He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (v. 16).
As the Holy Spirit descends visibly in a "form like a dove" upon Jesus at his baptism, God shows John the one who will baptize in the Holy Spirit and whose "winnowing fan is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat into his granary, but chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (v. 22). In no need of John's Baptism, Jesus travels to the Jordan to bless the waters and open the way for future Sacramental Baptism.
In verse 23, we see that Luke's genealogy that begins with Adam, Son of God. This contrasts Matthew's Judaic genealogy places Abraham as Jesus' eldest relative.
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, then returned from the Jordan and was conducted by the spirit into the desert for forty days, where he was tempted by the devil (4:1). Although the devil tempts Jesus three times by using Scripture Jesus is able to rebuke the devil with Scripture and does not succumb. In all three instances, the devil proposes that Jesus compromise his principles to accomplish a so-called greater good.
In 4:14, Jesus returns into Galilee to begin his active ministry by teaching in the synagogues to much praise. Yet, Luke does not mention the arrest of John as the catalyst in the start of Jesus' active ministry as do the other Gospel writers.
In one notable instance, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue at Nazareth and reads powerfully from a scroll of Isaiah 61:11, announcing the advent of the Messianic age:
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore, He has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor; to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release of prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord" (18).
Initially lauded by all in attendance, Jesus soon questions the assembly's sincerity and speaks of the hardness of their hearts. This enrages crowd, so much so they "rose up and expelled him from the town, leading him to the brow of the hill [...] and intending to hurl him over the edge" (29). Jesus, however, is able to pass through their mist and walk away. The first of many instances where Jesus' message pushes the limits of human receptiveness, we will contrast this noticeable instance with Jesus' teaching at Capernaum in next week's podcast.
Following the Presentation Luke omits the flight into Egypt and focuses on Jesus' upbringing in Nazareth. He emphasizes that throughout this time "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man".
The childhood of Jesus has serious Christological implications. The Gnostic Gospels show Jesus acting on a whim but the Scriptures attest that Christ did nothing in his life unless it was the will of His Father.
At age 12 Jesus entered the Temple on his own two feet. After his parents left the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. On the third day of searching Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers". Though his actions may seem rebellious, they were not. "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" Even at 12 Jesus was fully aware of His unique identity as the Son of God.
With Mary, we do well to pray through the childhood narrative of Luke, 'keeping all these things in our hearts.' Only after many prayerful readings will we begin to appreciate the life of God incarnate, the redeemer of every aspect of our humanity.
The study begins with the controversy regarding the census that sent Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem and the dating of the birth of Christ. The historical reading of the historian Josephus is that Herod died in 4 B.C. and thus it is logical for Christ's birth to be sometime before that. Although some favor 6 B.C. as Christ's birth year, modern readings of Josephus push his death up to around 1 B.C. and complicate the matter. Because "history is a history of fragments," both the issue of Christ's birth year and the verification of Quirinius' governorship during the census are more difficult to verify than many realize.
Luke 2:2 speaks of the census that compels Joseph to travel to Bethlehem as " the first census that took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria." After looking at the career of Quirinius and the writings of the Early Christian Tertullian, however, it appears that he was neither governor during the time that Luke dates the birth of Christ nor would Quirinius have authority to carry out a census within Herod's territory. It seems Luke may be referring to a different census or that his definition of a census is different than that of the writers of history in his age. In the end, we have no sufficient evidence to either verify that Luke is historically correct in this or prove a clear contradiction against Luke's depiction and dating of the census.
The rest of this session focuses on the Christmas story and on the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sends the mighty Archangel Gabriel to Mary, announcing that this "virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David," will conceive and bear a son, Jesus (LK 1:26-28). He specifically chooses this Holy Virgin for an absolutely amazing vocation: to be the mother of the Messiah, the instrument through whom the infinite God becomes incarnate.
Great will be his dignity and he will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end. (32-33)
In this child, the Messianic Kingdom of David will emerge as "the stone [...] hewn from the mountain without a hand" that shatters all the kingdoms of this world forever and rules for eternity (Daniel2:44). According to the tradition of the historic Davidic court, the Queen mother holds a prominence in the King's life. This is all the more true of relationship between Jesus and Mary.
The study then shifts to how God has provided a safe place for the virgin to spend her pregnancy, for her parents and neighbors would have thought Mary was crazy or might even have handed her over to be stoned according to the Law. Moreover, because God makes Mary's pregnancy known to Elizabeth, Mary does not have to convince her cousin that she is to pregnant with the Savior.
Analyzing the Magnificat reveals that this simple, tender-hearted young woman possessed a deeply intimate knowledge of Scripture (Lk 46-55).Her Canticle is a wonderful bouquet of many Psalms and the writings of the Prophets which mirrors the Canticle of Hannah in 1 Samuel. The implications of Mary's prayer are truly astounding, as is the connection between Samuel and John/Jesus. The Canticle of Zechariah is similarly profound and Luke purposefully includes this prophecy from the once-mute father of John that alludes to Malachi.
The study concludes with a look at the preparatory nature of God, who not only profoundly prepares the way for his Son, but also opens the doors of our hearts and is even now preparing us to be a people transformed according to his divine plan – if we but let him in.
Starting at Luke 1:5, this session focuses on the man God destined to "prepare the way of the Lord," John the Baptist (Is 40:3). He is the long-awaited son of the Zechariah the priest of Abijah and the barren Elizabeth, an elderly couple who were "blameless before the Lord, following all this commandments and ordinances" (Lk 1:6)
The so-called "Little Annunciation" refers to Luke 1:8-22, when the Archangel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the Temple and announces that Elizabeth will conceive of John. As he towers over Zechariah before the Altar of Insence, Gabriel proclaims that John will not only be a Nazirite who lives according to the ordinances of Numbers 6, but he will "be filled with the Holy Spirit" from his mother's womb and will fulfil the prophecies of the end of the Book of Malachi and Sirach 48:10. Moreover, he will
"turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before Him in the spirit of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
When Zechariah questions the messenger of God, he is struck mute until John's birth for his lack of faith, but his tongue loosens at the remarkable naming of his son. Now eight days old, John has been the talk of the hill country of Judah for five months, for some of his neighbors marvel at him, others are frightened and all ask "What then will this child be?"
Simply put, John is the greatest of all the prophets who effectively sums up all the prophets and a saint of saints. All four Gospels begin with John the Baptist as the herald and preparer for Christ. Intentionally consecrated for divine intervention, John is filled with the Holy Spirit from within his mother's womb. The first prophet in 400 years, his ministry of baptism and repentance was unique in all of Judaism quickly attracts the attention of all of Israel.
Baptizing thousands primarily in the Jordan he even extends his ministry to the Samaritans and is later captured ministering in the Northern country. His extraordinarily radical message condemns the government for its injustice towards the poor and indicts the corruption within the priestly leadership. Underscoring the presence of grace and divine design in John's life, Jesus chooses not to begin his ministry full-throttle until after John's death.
John's ministry is relevant even today, for we must continue to prepare the way of the Lord and do whatever possible to prepare ourselves and our people for salvation by repenting and entering into the treasures of our Baptism.
Part 2 of the introduction to Luke. See last week's (updated) show notes for a full description.
Laying a firm foundation for the Gospel of Luke will allow for a much greater appreciation of this incredible book, which is written in the unique literary form of the gospels: not a biography of Jesus but more of a "snapshot" narration of specific events in his life. We refer to Luke as a synoptic gospel, a term that means "of the same viewpoint," because Luke's account shares nearly three-quarters of the same material with those of Matthew and Mark. All three are seemingly derived from the same Apostolic outline of Jesus' life. Right from the outset he speaks of his desire to clarify the truth amidst various gospel accounts describing the story of Jesus. The only Gentile writer in all of the Bible, Luke writes in an elegant, well-educated Greek that is reminiscent of the best Greek of the Septuagint. He is also undoubtedly the author of the Acts of the Apostles. A humble man, one whom Paul referred to as the "beloved physician," Luke hailed from the great cultural and economic center of Antioch, a major early Christian city known as the great mother of churches (Col 4:14).
A masterful mid-first century historian, Luke's gospel is the product of his painstaking research during the many years in which he accompanied Paul in his travels. Relying on eyewitness and historical accounts from individuals who saw Christ and others who were then residing in Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor, he writes to Theophilus, "lover of God," which could refer to either a generic Christian reader or to a specific individual. Although some scholars date Luke's gospel later, the date of composition may have been earlier than 64 A.D. In either case, he writes to a Christian who has already received basic catechesis, attempting to instruct with greater surety the truth of the Christian message.
A convert himself, Luke expresses the depths of God's universal mercy, who "come[s] to seek and to save the lost" throughout the entire world and excludes no one (19:10). He stresses Christ's unique compassion for the poor, the broken-hearted, and the outcast and also focuses on Jesus' interaction with women, a rarity among Jewish literature of any time. Luke's unique infancy narrative, which contains several Canticles and the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, reflects a deep perspective on the Holy Family and the heart of Mary. And his many parables (Luke has more parables than any other gospel) project a picture of Jesus Christ which we can savor through prayerful reading.
When Todd Duncan, a 22 year-old cradle Catholic from Erie, PA, was growing up everyone thought him to be the model young parishioner who had a marked maturity in his faith. Todd thought so, too. Everything changed when he entered his first year at the Rochester Institute of Technology and realized that his Protestant friends had a much better grasp than he did on matters of faith, the Bible and even theology. But God's grace led Todd to true fellowship, to the St. Irenaeus Center and to a profound love of the Catholic Church.
Dick Graham, a cradle Catholic and president of the Rochester, NY Hibernian Society for Irish Americans, speaks on a subject very dear to his heart: Roman Catholic apologetics. Admittedly a former "BIC," or "Bible Ignorant Catholic," it was not until he had to defend his daughter's faith that he began to study apologetics. He discusses the history of Catholic apologetics and practical ways to study and also reminds us of the charge of St. Peter, who wrote in his first Epistle, "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence."
Joseph Pearce was born the son of a fierce anti-Catholic in the late 1960s. Hear the story of how God's grace carried a young, uneducated "agnostic Protestant bigot" who was "racist to the core" into the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church.
Now a professor of English Literature at Ave Maria University and the author of 147 books, including notable autobiographies of 20th Century's greatest Catholic writers, his conversion is a story of providence triumphing over political anger, racial hatred and violence. While serving his first prison sentence for "publishing material likely to incite racial hatred" Pearce began to read GK Chesterton. He felt the "rug being pulled out from underneath his prejudices" because he could not defeat Chesterton's arguments in economics and theology. During a second prison sentence he began to pray, and from that point it was only a matter of time before he was brought into the Church.
Dr. RJ Stansbury's talk from the 2007 Chesterton Conference discusses the crucial role that monasticism played in the conversion of St. Augustine.
On October 6th, 2007 the Rochester, NY Chesterton Society held their annual conference, entitled "Conversion of Heart". David Higbee opened the day with this talk on the conversion of St. Paul.
The conclusion of our retreat's first session (of three), this podcast continues the discussion of the role of the Holy Spirit.
Hidden in the depths of the Christian life a great treasure awaits us! Christ and His apostles pressed certain spiritual truths for a very important reason. They are the much needed medicine for what ails us and the Church today. This meditative, soul searching, and instructive retreat will be podcast in its entirety.
The first of three episodes that look at the reigns of Constantine and Theodosius and discuss the ever-relevant issue of Church and State.
The Journeymen group was originally conceived as a way to equip young men for service in the Church, and has since attracted men and women of all ages. Our 2007 series on Church History began with an overview of the period of the New Testament.
A departure from the usual lecture style, these sessions on how to study the Bible were conducted informally and with more discussion. Three basic and distinct operations in Scripture study were outlined:
1. Observation: What does the text actually say?
2. Interpretation: What was the passage intended to mean to God's people - spiritually?
3. Application: How does the basic meaning or spiritual principle apply to me or to my situation personally?
1 Peter 3 contains some extremely controversial passages. Here we cover in detail what it means for wives to be submissive to their husbands.
This episode picks up where the introduction left off. Christians are called not only to a living hope but are also called to be holy.
Every Christian is called to present suffering and future glory. This encyclical letter is as valuable today as it was in the first century.
These two talks were given at a St. Irenaeus community Men's Breakfast on May 12th 2007. We have an exhortation on prayer followed by the testimony of another one of our young men.
It has been said that whoever wishes to repent should study the deeds of David. This unvarnished look at the life of David serves as the backdrop for next week's look at Psalm 51.
The importance of a true and honest personal assessment, with lessons from 1st Corinthians and Romans.
A study of the Greek word diatheke, which can mean either will or covenant, opens up the second half of Chapter Nine to the reader.
The New Covenant of Jesus Christ is better than the Old Covenant because it is enacted on better promises. This lesson covers Chapter 8 of Hebrews.
The end of the fourth chapter of Hebrews introduces the teaching that Jesus Christ is our High Priest.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? In this episode we discuss some weighty passages from the beginning of chapter 2.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is our divine key to understanding God's plan. This 2004 series will be podcast in its entirety, beginning with this informative introduction.
St. Mark is unique in its brevity and its vividness. It portrays a flesh and blood Jesus perhaps more simply and clearly than any other Gospel. It is said to have been drawn from the actual preaching of the Apostle Peter in Rome. It shows our Lord's divinity through his miracles and, in a special way, Mark sets out the stark demands and great rewards of true discipleship.
Many Catholics would like a better, clearer, firmer grasp of the prophecies which foretell the appearance of Christ as the Messiah of Israel. In this series we also look at the signs and teachings of Christ's second coming - a topic about which there is as much confusion as there is interest. How then should a serious believer look at these passages of Scripture? How should we interpret them? How can we apply their lessons and warnings? What a subject for solid teaching and lively discussion!
This week we look at the prologue of John's Gospel. Consider these famous opening verses more deeply than you have before.
This series on the Gospel of John has been a favorite of the St. Irenaeus community since it was first recorded in 2003. This installment sets up the 12-week series, and the next episode will take a look at the famous prologue of John's gospel.
What do we really mean by saving faith in Jesus Christ? We explore this in our study of St. Paul's letter to the Galatians.
Picking up from last week's podcast we explore the prophesies of the Servant of the Lord.
Among the written prophets of ancient Israel, after Moses, Isaiah has always held first place in the hearts of the teachers. His voice soars across the ages, the most majestic in Old Testament prophecy. Jesus quoted him often, and his prophecies of a coming Messiah are especially important for their grandeur and specific content. Every student of the Bible needs to draw deeply from Isaiah.
This Fall '05 series covered key lessons from the Old Testament. Building on the themes of Deliverance, Mt. Sinai and the Tabernacle, this episode explores the desert experience of Israel from the books of Exodus and Numbers.
This lecture from our 2006 retreat on the spiritual life discusses the supreme importance of the Eucharist.
Hosea (salvation) is one of the most unusual books of the Bible - the story of a young prophet told to marry a beautiful prostitute, who after the birth of their children is drawn back to her old life. She is repeatedly unfaithful. It is a story of unrequited love and deep ingratitude, but it is also a story of a yet more presistent love, forgiveness and a plea for return (repentance). It is a picture of God's enduring love for his own wayward people. These lessons are rich in spiritual insight and passionate longing for the sinner's return.