TOS054 Basics of Faith II: Basics to Reading the Bible For audio TOS054: Basics of Faith II – Basics to Reading the Bible | Listen Notes
One of the goals of the Truth of the Spirit podcasts is to remind you of the Spirit filled facets of our Christian faith, sometimes returning to the basics to allow you better access to teachings and actions of those inspired by the Holy Spirit. Please join Patti Brunner and Truth of the Spirit to explore Basics of Faith with the Basics to Reading the Bible for Catholics. The Church “forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ‘ (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures” (Catechism #2653). Anybody can pick up a bible, open it, and start reading it. I want to explain to you how the bible is structured so you can understand how wonderful the bible is! The bible teaches us the ancestral history of Jesus true man. But it does more. It helps us to see that Jesus is true God. The Bible is a communication from God to Man. The entire bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit using human writers to record and share the truth.
The bible shares the Formation & History of God’s people: from Creation and man’s sin to establishment of the Law given to Moses, to the establishment of the Kingdom of David, from rejection of God’s law to the coming of the promised Messiah, the birth of Christ and salvation and then the establishment of the Church.
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I am Patti Brunner and you are listening to Truth of the Spirit. One of the goals of the Truth of the Spirit podcasts is to remind you of the Spirit filled facets of our Christian faith, sometimes returning to the basics to allow you better access to teachings and actions of those inspired by the Holy Spirit. Please join me now Truth of the Spirit is explores the Basics to Reading the Bible for Catholics.
In John chapter 4 After Jesus encountered the woman at the well, and shared the truth with her she went to town and shared the Good News with them. After this “sharing of the Good News” they themselves went to find Jesus. Many more began to believe in Jesus because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” Having these words written down in the bible points out the importance of sharing and passing on truth, revealed by God; and so we have, from one generation to the next for thousands of years.
Every Catholic, every Christian, is urged by the Church to read, study, listen to and pray the Holy Scriptures. The Lord is present to us in the Bible. Proclaiming the Word brings the living presence of Jesus, the Word, into our hearts and minds. We read in the CCC paragraph #2653 the Church “forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ‘ (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures…. prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For ‘we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.”‘
The bible reveals God’s plan for restoring man to be what he was created to be. Sacred Scripture is a communication from God to man, the Living Word, and it was written for all of us. It is timeless and applies to every time. Through it God prepares the world to receive his Son, Jesus. The Bible, the Sacred Scripture, the Word of God is a communication from God to Man. The entire bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit using human writers to record and share the truth. From the beginning, information in this book has been shared from generation to generation.
Anybody can pick up a bible, open it, and start reading it. I want to explain to you how the bible is structured so you can understand how wonderful the bible is! The bible is divided in two main parts: The Old Testament and the New Testament. Pick up a bible and hold it by the New Testament section, which is about 20% of the Bible, this is the part of the bible that was written after Jesus true God/true man rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sent us the Holy Spirit. And the rest, or about 80% of the Bible, is the Old Testament, covers over 2000 years before the birth of Christ and was formulated as an inspired set of books 125 years before the first Christmas.
The bible shares the Formation & History of God’s people: from Creation and man’s sin to establishment of the Law given to Moses, to the establishment of the Kingdom of David, from rejection of God’s law to the coming of the promised Messiah, the birth of Christ and salvation and then the establishment of the Church.
If you look at first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew and Chapter 1 verse 1 you will find The Genealogy of Jesus. We see names such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and Tamar. Down a little farther we see Boaz and Ruth, Jesse and King David and his son Solomon. These are all important historic characters in the Old Testament. In verse 11 we find the families at the time of the Babylonian exile. And we finish the list at verse 16 and see the name of “Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah. 17 Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”
The bible teaches us the ancestral history of Jesus true man. But it does more. It helps us to see that Jesus is true God. Turn to the Gospel of John; it’s the 4th Gospel in the bible. Chapter 1 verse 1 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;” [Gospel of John 1:1-4]
The order of the books of the Bible is neither chronological nor alphabetical but, like a library, is by category. Within the category sometimes length is also a factor. If you open your bibles to the first few pages you should find a list of the Books of the bibles by category.
The first Category given to the books of the bible is the Pentateuch. The first five books of the Pentateuch are also known by the Jewish faith as “The Torah”. The Pentateuch Books share the initial formation of the people of God and the establishment of relationship with God. The first book of the bible, Genesis, starts with the story of creation; God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit created the earth and all that is in it. and it was good. But through free will the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, chose to sin by disobeying God. Because of sin, man lost all rights to dwell in paradise with God. Their generations of offspring continue to sin, but God has a plan to restore mankind to paradise. God sent a flood and everything perished except the family of Noah and the gathered creatures inside Noah’s Ark. The flood waters are a foreshadowing of the waters of Baptism. As we learn in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Abraham’s story begins in Chapter 11 of Genesis and took place over 4000 years ago [2100 BC]. By then, the people did not know God. God spoke to Abraham and told him to take his wife and travel to a promised land. God also promised Abraham many descendants, as numerous as the sand in the sea or the stars in the sky. Abraham was 75 years old when God called him to make this move! And he was 100 years old before the promise of a child was fulfilled when his wife was 90. Nothing is impossible for God! We are some of those descendants promised by God—Abraham is our Father of Faith. God made a Family Covenant with Abraham, whose son Isaac foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God.
Isaac’s son, Jacob, is also known as Israel and his 12 sons become the 12 tribes of Israel who spent 400 years in Egypt becoming slaves. It is there that Moses is born. In the historical book of Exodus, Moses is called by God –using a burning bush-and sent by God to set the millions of Israelites free and lead them to the Promised Land. God explains redemption by the blood of the Lamb through instructions for the first Passover. God then helps their escape from Egyptian soldiers by parting the Red Sea and, like in Baptism, they are set free from slavery. However, the effects of slavery are deep within them. You can take the people out of Egypt but it took 40 years to take the Egypt out of the people. In the desert we find the foreshadowing of the Eucharist when God gives these million hungry people bread from heaven called Manna to eat for 40 years in the desert.
During the time of the Exodus, other books are also written: Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Through Moses, God gives the people instructions on how to be the people of God, including the 10 Commandments, but they fail over and over. Many of their experiences in the desert are a foreshadowing of how Jesus will lead the whole world out of the slavery of sin. Sadly, often mankind continues to choose the slavery of sin. Instead of writing the law on tablets Jesus writes the law on our hearts. Through Moses God instructs how to build a tabernacle to hold the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The golden Ark of the Covenant housed the tablets of the 10 Commandments, a jar of Manna, and the staff that sprouted that identified Aaron as the first High Priest. We now recognize the tabernacles in all Catholic Churches that contain the true presence of God in the Eucharist. The True Bread who came down from heaven. The Staff of Aaron shows the authority of the Church to lead and the Commandments show the importance of having Church Law to help us to have righteous relationship with God and our neighbor. After the 40 years in the desert the people crossed over the river Jordan to enter the Promised Land.
The group of History books of the bible continues the story with the leadership of Joshua and the times of the Judges who were also military leaders such as Samson, Debra and Gideon. Then comes the story of Ruth who is a Moabite woman in the family tree of Jesus and the great-grandmother of King David. In First and Second Samuel, we hear of the great prophet Samuel, who anoints the first two Kings of Israel: Saul then David. And we discover that even as a boy David is very special. You can read how he overcomes the giant Goliath with a slingshot. As King, David triumphs over enemies, he establishes Jerusalem as the royal city in the united kingdom of Israel. King David, because of his great love for God, received the promise from God that Jesus now fulfills. In 2 Samuel, chapter 7, the prophet Nathan spoke this promise of the Lord to King David, “I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He it is who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever.” King David had lots of sons with different mothers, and they had some major issues, but he chose Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, to be his immediate heir to the throne. King Solomon received a great gift of wisdom and built a magnificent temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. But to gain land and power he had over 600 wives and concubines and to please his wives began to approve the worship of other gods in the kingdom. This and sinful choices by kings after Solomon led to the eventual break-up of the kingdom, whose regretful tales begin in 1st & 2nd Kings and continue in 1st & 2nd Chronicles. During this break-up of the kingdom, God sent many prophets to share truth. Most of the time, the people and the kings did not listen and were unfaithful.
To protect and reform his people, God allowed the exile of the people and destruction of the temple. The Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years. After 70 years, the people returned and rebuilt the temple and repaired the city with a renewed appreciation for God and his word. Books of the Bible which give us a better understanding of these times are Ezra and Nehemiah. We are also given the personal stories of Tobit, Judith, and Esther. Later Jerusalem was conquered by Rome and the temple was desecrated. This brought about the Maccabean rebellion. The two Maccabee books bring our timeline up to the time of the birth of Christ.
While this was all going on we have various other books that were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Wisdom Books include books that help the people to establish a relationship with God. The Wisdom books are the opportunity to know God. Here we discover that God is Wisdom. And, as Paul will remind us in 1st Corinthians in the New Testament, that God is love.
There are 7 Wisdom Books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom, and Sirach. The Psalms are in the middle of the bible. The 150 Psalms are a song book especially used for worship at the temple. Many were written by King David. The Psalms praised God in good times and bad. They are full of emotions: Psalm 23 ‘though I walk the valley of death I fear no evil for you are at my side’ to Psalm 31: Like a weaned child rests on his mother’s lap so I shall rest in you’ to Psalm 119 “I know more than all my instructors and teachers because I love your commands.” Like the ancient people we also sing the Psalms at our worship, the Mass.
Proverbs share the sayings of Solomon who was given the gift of Wisdom by God and Job shows us faithfulness despite hardship and proof that the righteous also can suffer, thus ‘setting’ the truth before Christ suffering innocently.
The 18 prophetic books are listed not chronologically but according to length of the book. The main role of these prophets was to reveal God’s plan of salvation and his will for the people–so they could repent. Although the people were not directly connected to the Holy Spirit because of original sin, God in his mercy communicated with those chosen to lead the people toward God. The people did not always listen to the prophets, nor did the kings. The prophets address the sinfulness of the people and the consequences of turning away from God. Rarely did the people listen. Most of the prophets were persecuted. Some of the prophets, especially Isaiah, also promised the Messiah and described characteristics of Jesus. Christ, the suffering servant, became priest, prophet, and King and shares with us these roles to live fully the gift of our Catholic faith.
The books of the prophets are generally listed in the bible in order of length. Isaiah, with 66 chapters, is longest so his book is the first in this section. The book of Jonah is in this section, and the story of how Jonah ran in the opposite direction when God told him to prophesy to Nineveh. It took a storm and a large fish to get him pointed in the right direction. Amos, listed in the middle, was actually considered the first prophet of this grouping. He warned people of coming destruction if the people did not repent and turn back to God. At the end of the book of Amos is a promise of a Messiah. The wise men who studied these prophets knew that the Messiah king would be born in the birthplace of David which was Bethlehem. As followers of Christ, we have the great gift of having hindsight when we can identify all the foreshadowing given in the Old Testament.
We then come to the New Testament. Let me say here that there is a unity of the Old and New Testaments. The Church teaches us in the Catechism Paragraph #128 that “The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant pre-figurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.” It goes on to say: in CCC #129 “Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself. Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”
The New Testament contains 4 Gospels, The Acts of the Apostles; Letters Written to the Early Church, and the book of Revelation. The Church greatly esteems each of the 4 gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the Liturgical cycle of the mass 90% of the Gospels is proclaimed on weekdays and 58% on Sundays. The Gospels contain actual words directly spoken by Jesus. Jesus says in Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Each of the four Gospels was written for a different audience. Although each of the writings in the bible took place in a specific time and given to a specific audience, the Living Word was written for all of us; it is timeless and applies to every time.
The Gospels all contain teachings and moments of the life of Jesus yet they reveal that Jesus is true God, true man in various ways for different specific purposes. Jesus calls his disciples; He establishes the sacraments to form the Church. He teaches, heals, and proclaims the kingdom using parables and miracles. He helps us to know the Father. In the Passion of Christ, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is sacrificed by death on a cross. Jesus conquers death and sin by his resurrection. Some miracles and narratives are reported in all four Gospels, especially the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, but there is much that is not. Mark’s is the shortest Gospel and John’s was written last. Only Matthew and Luke write about the birth and infancy of Jesus. John teaches about the Eucharist in theological way in his chapter 6 instead of the institution narrative at the Last Supper that the others share. Mark’s Gospel was probably written about the year 70, about 40 years after the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. John’s Gospel was last about 100 CE/AD. All of the New Testament was written in Greek.
The first book after the Gospels is the Acts of the Apostles. It tells the deeds, teaching and leadership of the brand new Church starting with the gift of the Holy Spirit 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus that has empowered the Church to stand against all odds to continue for 2000 years and it will withstand the gates of hell until the end of time itself.
Following Acts of the Apostles is the collection of Paul’s letters that he wrote to encourage and teach the new Christian communities that he formed in various cities as he traveled. Paul’s story began as a persecutor of followers of Jesus then reveals his dramatic conversion experience through a mystical experience with Christ. Paul evangelized Jews and Gentiles. Like the books of the prophets, Paul’s letters are listed by length. The Letters of the New Testament, also called epistles, were written between 50-100 A.D. mostly by Paul. Others were written by disciples James, Peter, John and Jude.
The bible is concluded with Revelation. Given in a vision to John by the Holy Spirit, Revelation uses much symbolic language –understood in the time of persecution that the Church began to experience. Some theologians, especially Scott Hahn, say it is about the Eucharist and many tie it to end-times.
Altogether the bible contains 73 books: 46 OT+27 NT. It has many different writers but all were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The canon, or list of inspired books, of the Old Testament was set 125 years before the birth of Christ. It is called the Septuagint, for the 70 Jewish scholars who approved it. Jesus quotes many of these verses in the Gospels. It was ratified by the Church when the New Testament was canonized in 393 at the Church’s Council of Hippo. About 1200 years later, during the Protestant Reformation, some of their leaders rejected this canon for the Masoretic list that was established by Jerusalem Jews 100 years after Christ. The Canon of the 27 inspired texts of the New Testament was set at the Catholic Church’s Council of Hippo in the year 393 and is accepted by every Christian.
One easy way for Catholics to get familiar with the bible is to read the daily mass scriptures. Then read what comes before or after to get a fullness of the message. Homilies and commentaries are available to increase our understanding. The Laudate app has great reflections on the daily readings. Another way is to choose one of the books and read from start to finish. Some easy read dramas in the Old Testament include Ruth, Tobit and Esther. To get an overview of the New Testament, start with the Gospel of Luke for the life and teachings of Christ and then read Luke’s part 2, the Acts of the Apostles, to find out what happened in the Church after Jesus ascended into heaven then sent the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest non-Catholic evangelizers of modern times, Billy Graham, suggested starting with the Gospel of John. Each book has something to offer us. When I first started reading and studying the bible, I put reference tabs at each book until I was familiar with what was where.
One time, I took the genealogy of Jesus given in Matthew and backtracked through the Old Testament to learn more about his and my family tree. I fell in love with the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David and the women in the list. I also have found movies about my favorite characters in the bible such as these as well as Joseph, Moses, Jeremiah, and Jonah. Many of them are very true to their source. A few times, I have felt challenged to read completely through the bible from start to finish using a guide to read a little from various categories each day.
I highly recommend joining a bible study and to pick up the bible during Adoration to let the Lord have your mind and heart. Each inspired communication, the Word of God, which is the revelation of God to us, is His personal revelation. Through it God brings us to deeper understanding of the “complete” public revelation given to His Church. Remember this and pick up your bible often and let the Word of the Lord come to you!
As we reach out and feed upon these writings of the Bible we shall know God as the Spirit abides in us and we abide in the Spirit, in Christ, in the Father.
Amen.
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m Patti Brunner. And remember, there’s more! With the Holy Spirit there is always more. Be sure and check out some of our past episodes. You can check out my website, PatriarchMinistries.com for details of each episode. Subscribe to have the next episode handy which will include more basics of our Catholic Faith and Truth of the Spirit.
