Our Lady | Bible Study

THE BIBLE
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Is our source of divine revelation about God, Creation, the close relationship between God and us and also about the history of our salvation. We find there many interesting, moving and shocking stories, deep wisdom, beautiful poetry and prose, great prayers, divine commandments, apostolic exhortation and of course the words of Jesus.
There are also many complex, foreign, legalistic, uninteresting and even dull passages which are difficult to read and understand. To help those who would like to be familiar with the essential parts of the Bible I will write a weekly, step-by-step guide beginning on the first Sunday of Advent.
Fr Tibor.
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1. The Bible begins with two creation stories.
2. The story of the Fall of Humanity
3. The narrative of the Flood
4. The story of Abram
5. Abraham’s wife gave birth to their first child & insisted that his other son was driven away.
6. Abraham’s son Isaac married Rebekah
7. Jacob arrived at his uncle’s house
8. The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37
9. Joseph has become the governor of Egypt
10. Israel (Jacob), the grand son of Abraham, died in Egypt
11. Moses received miraculous powers
12. God said to Moses: all firstborn are consecrated to the Lord. (Exodus 13)
13. The ratification of the Covenant
14. We have reached the Book of Numbers
15. The Israelites wandered in the desert
16. the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy.
17. The Book of Joshua.
18. We have reached the Book of Judges.
19. The Book of Ruth is very short, only four pages.
20. The First Book of Samuel begins with the story of Hannah
21. After the death of Saul David became king of Judah
22. The great sin of David
23. King David died and his son Solomon succeeded him
24. King Solomon had many foreign wives
25. The miracles of the prophet Elijah are told in 1Kings 17-19
26. In 721BC the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel
27. The first and second Books of Chronicles
28. The Book of Tobit is an exile story about Tobias, the son of Tobit

1.
THE BIBLE The Bible begins with two creation stories. The first (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) tells us that God existed before anything else and created the world from nothing in an ascending order of things, finishing with the creation of humanity in his own image i.e. capable of reasoning, justice, love and so on. Humanity was put in charge of the rest of creation.
The day of rest after six days of labour is of divine institution.
In the second story (Genesis 2:4b-2:25) God created a man before the Garden of Eden was made. He wanted to keep man innocent and free from knowing evil.
The man was allowed to name all the animals. Naming them was a symbolic act of having authority over them. A woman was created to keep the man company and marriage is of divine institution.
Whether we believe these stories as told or accept the scientific view of evolution over millions of years the message is the same, the material world had a beginning which was brought about by the Transcendent God who existed before the world was made.

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2.
THE BIBLE, part 2 The story of the Fall of Humanity is in Genesis, chapter 3. They lived happily in Paradise, in harmony with all Creation, trusting in God, who wanted to spare them the knowledge of evil. (Genesis chapter 3).
Then they got persuaded that God should not be trusted, that they could do without him. They exercised their free will and followed their own counsel. As a result they began to experience shame, the need to hide and cover up. They denied responsibility for what happened. The hardship of life began. Cain and Abel were two brothers. (chapter 4) Abel’s offering to God came from the heart but Cain’s did not. (in the 1st Eucharistic prayer we ask God to : ‘look with favour on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel…’) Cain killed his brother. When God asked him where Abel was he replied ‘am I my brother’s keeper?’
In Chapter 5 we read the roll of Adam’s descendants including Methuselah who lived for 969 years.

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3.
THE BIBLE, part 3 - please read the relevant chapters
The narrative of the Flood in Genesis, chapters 6-9 ends with two positive messages. The first is that day will always follow night; spring and summer will always follow winter. The second is that humanity will not become extinct before the end of time. The sign of this promise is the rainbow. The tower of Babel and the start of many different languages are mentioned in chapter 11.

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4.
THE BIBLE. Part 4. The story of Abram (Abraham) – our Father in Faith - begins in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis. God called him from his home to become a wanderer in foreign lands promising him a new homeland and many descendants. He settled at the Oak of Mamre, at Hebron, and his nephew Lot settled at Sodom. (chapter.13). After a local Abraham met the King of Salem (Jeru-Salem) called Melchizedek who was also a priest of the Most High. He brought an offering of bread and wine and he blessed Abraham. (Gen 14:17). This event is commemorated in the First Eucharistic Prayer. Three angels appeared to Abraham in the form of travelers. They told him that he and his wife would finally get their long promised child. (chapter 18). They told him also that they were on their way to destroy the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was concerned for Lot and he appealed for the lives of the people there. It is an example of perseverance in prayer that six times he was given what he asked for and six times he asked for more.

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5.
THE BIBLE (please read the relevant passages for full benefit) When Abraham’s wife gave birth to their first child she insisted that his other son by a slave woman was driven from their home. (Gen 21) It is a very sad story that Abraham agrees and mother and child are sent into the desert to die. When Abraham’s son Isaac had grown up a bit, God asked for him to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. (Gen 22) It is a disturbing tale. Although it was only a test, never to be carried out Abraham did not know that. In blind faith and obedience he set out to kill his only son. Isaac grew up and his father wanted him to marry a girl from his own people back in the old country. The moving story of a servant’s mission to bring back a wife for Isaac is told in chapter 24.

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6.
THE BIBLE. Part 6. please read the relevant chapters.
Abraham’s son Isaac married Rebekah, the girl brought for him from the old country. She gave birth to twin boys. (Genesis, chapter 25:19-). Esau grew up a wild, easy going man, a hunter. Jacob became a quiet man with a purpose who liked to stay at home. Esau, the firstborn, treated his birth right with contempt and sold it to his brother for a bowl of lentil stew. (Gen 25:29-). Rebekah wanted her dying husband’s final blessing go to her favourite son Jacob and she devised a scheme to achieve this (Gen 27). Jacob was sent to his mother’s relatives to find a wife for himself and to hide from the fury of his brother Esau. (Gen 28). On the way there Jacob had a dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels going up and down on it.
The Lord appeared to him and gave him the same promise he gave to his grandfather Abraham. When Jacob woke from his dream he said: “How awe-inspiring this place is. This is nothing less than the abode of God and this is the gate of heaven.”

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7.
THE BIBLE. Part 7. Jacob arrived at his uncle’s house and met his two cousins, two girls. (Genesis 29) He fell in love with the younger, Rachel and offered to work for her father for seven years in exchange for her hand in marriage. “He worked for seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like a few days because he loved her so much.” When the wedding day came Jacob was tricked into marrying the elder daughter Leah, whom he did not love. His father-in-law defended himself by saying: “it is not the custom in our place to marry off the younger before the elder.”
Jacob then had to work another seven years for Rachel. And Jacob loved Rachel but she had no children while Leah gave birth to four sons and still Jacob did not love her. Jealousy broke out between the sisters. (Gen. 30) Leah’s four sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. They were to become the fathers of four of the twelve tribes of Israel. God blessed Jacob and he became a wealthy man with flocks and herds and he set out with his large family and livestock to return to his parent’s home. One night a mysterious man appeared and wrestled with him. (Gen. 32:26-) Although Jacob thought he was wrestling with God he held his own and did not loose the fight. The mystery man blessed him and told him that his new name was to be Israel.

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8.
THE BIBLE. Part 8 The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37. He was hated by his elder brothers because their father Jacob loved him most. One day they sold him to people in a caravan going to Egypt and to their father they said: ‘a wild animal devoured him’.
In Egypt Joseph became the slave of one of Pharaoh’s officials. (Genesis 39) He was a competent man trusted by his master. His mistress tried to seduce him but he remained loyal to his master and ended up in prison. There he interpreted the dreams of two other prisoners (Genesis 40). When Pharaoh had a strange dream (Genesis 41) Joseph was brought out of prison to interpret it. There followed seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. Joseph was promoted to chancellor.

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9.
THE BIBLE. Part 9 Joseph has become the governor of Egypt for interpreting correctly Pharaoh’s dream. The story of how he planned for the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine is in Genesis 41:37-. Even his brothers came to Egypt to buy grain but they did not recognize in the powerful governor the brother they sold into slavery years before. (Genesis 42- 44)
Joseph did not take revenge on his brothers and the whole family moved over to Egypt. (Genesis 45-47) This was how the People of Israel came to be in Egypt.

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10.
THE BIBLE. Part 10 Israel (Jacob), the grand son of Abraham, died in Egypt and so did his famous son Joseph (Genesis 50). The family increased in numbers over many generations and there came a time when a pharaoh grew concerned about the numbers and ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed. (Exodus 1) He also made the lives of the Israelites miserable by imposing very hard labour on them. Moses was born at that time and the story of his survival in a basket floating on the Nile is told in Exodus 2.
The story of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush is in Exodus 3, and so is the revelation of the divine name: I AM. Moses received his instruction to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Like most prophets after him he protested, saying, “who am I to go to pharaoh?” But the Lord reassured him, “I shall be with you.”

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11.
THE BIBLE. Part 11 Moses received miraculous powers to give him authority when speaking to the Israelites and Pharaoh. (Exodus 4) Still he protested, “please my Lord, I have never been eloquent, send someone else.” This time the Lord gave in and appointed Moses’ brother Aaron to be his mouthpiece. The first eight plagues on Egypt are described in chapters 7-10. Then the final plague is announced by God, the death of all the first-born. (Exodus11).
The Israelites were of course spared all the plagues but they were required to paint their doorposts with the blood of a lamb which they killed so that when the first born were struck down all over Egypt, their houses marked with the blood of a lamb would be passed over.
This was the Passover Night and the meal they ate that night was the Passover Meal. It was to become a day of festival for the Jewish people to commemorate that day when God brought them out of Egypt. (Exodus 12) When Jesus ate the Last Supper with the apostles he was eating this Passover Meal.

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12.
THE BIBLE. 12. God said to Moses: all firstborn are consecrated to the Lord. (Exodus 13) Jesus, like all firstborn, had to be redeemed (Luke 2:22-) The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, many hundreds of thousands of them, and their crossing of the sea in flight of the pursuing Egyptian army are described in the 13-14 chapters of Exodus.
The victory song of Moses is in ch.15. It is one of the beautiful Old Testament canticles and now forms part of the Divine Office. They moved on into the inhospitable desert where they experienced hunger and thirst. They were unaccustomed to hunger because there was always enough to eat in Egypt. They complained to Moses and the story of manna and quails from heaven is told in Exodus16.
The father-in-law of Moses saw him administering justice for the people from morning till evening and told him to delegate some of this work to other elders and concentrate his energies on representing the people to God. (Exodus 18:13-)
When they reached the wilderness of Sinai they stopped at a mountain where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments (chapters19-20). Other laws are also listed in chapters 21-23.

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13.
THE BIBLE. Part 13 The ratification of the Covenant with blood of bulls is described in chapter 24 of Exodus. Today we have the new and everlasting Covenant which was ratified by the sacred blood of Christ. (the priest say these words when consecrating the wine at Mass).
Moses talked with God so much that his face was radiant and the people were afraid to go near him. So he covered his face with a veil when talking to the people but he took it off when he spoke with God. (Exodus 34:29-35) He said to God: ”please show me your glory”. God’s glory passed Moses but God covered Moses with his hand for “no human can see God’s glory and survive.” (chapter 33:18-23) Chapters 25-32 and 35-40 cover the instructions on the building of the sanctuary, the offerings and the ministers.
The Book of Leviticus and Book of Numbers 1-10 are all about more laws and regulations for the Israelites.

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14.
THE BIBLE. Part 14 We have reached the Book of Numbers in our run through the Bible.
When the people complained about the lack of meat in the desert Moses turned to God and said: “where am I to find meat for these people? Why do you put the burden of all these people on me?” (Numbers 11)
So God told him to collect seventy of the elders of Israel and he took some of the spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. And they bore the burden with Moses so he no longer had to bear it on his own. The Israelites wandered in the desert and they developed a fearsome reputation as being unstoppable because God was on their side. (Book of Numbers, 21)
The king of Arad attacked them when they come near his land but he was beaten. Sihon king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan suffered the same fate. The Moabites were also filled with dread and said: “this hoard is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” The king of Moab, Balak, tried divination against them. He summoned Balaam the seer and asked him to curse the Israelites. But God told Balaam that the people of Israel were blessed and he should leave them alone. (Numbers 22)
The story of Balaam’s talking donkey and the angel is told in verses 21-39 and the oracles of Balaam are in chapters 23-24.

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15.
THE BIBLE - part 15. The Israelites wandered in the desert and they developed a fearsome reputation as being unstoppable because God was on their side. (Book of Numbers, 21) The king of Arad attacked them when they came near his land but he was beaten. Sihon king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan suffered the same fate. The Moabites were also filled with dread and said: “this hoard is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” The king of Moab, Balak, tried divination against them. He summoned Balaam the seer and asked him to curse the Israelites. But God told Balaam that the people of Israel were blessed and he should leave them alone. (Numbers 22) The story of Balaam’s talking donkey and the angel is told in verses 21-39 and the oracles of Balaam are in chapters 23-24.

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16.
THE BIBLE - part 16. We have reached the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy. Much of the content of this book is a repetition of what has been presented before, mostly a collection of laws and regulations.
The summary of the Law which Jesus quoted is in chapter 6:4-9, “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…” God’s choice of the people of Israel is explained in 7:6- “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because the Lord loves you….”
The great Song of Moses is in chapter 32 and the death of Moses described in ch. 34. With that we close the first five books also called by the collective name of The Pentateuch.

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17.
THE BIBLE - part 17. The Book of Joshua. Moses died and Joshua succeeded him in the role of mediator between God and the Israelites. They arrived at the Promised Land, ready to move in and take it over. They crossed the Jordan (chapter 3) and conquered Jericho (ch. 5:13- ). They defeated 31 kingdoms in all. These are listed in ch.12. Part of what they took over was allotted to each tribe. After they had had settled, there was a great assembly at Shechem (ch.24) and the Covenant was renewed. Joshua reminded the people of the choices they had: to serve the Lord or to go with the gods of the peoples

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18.
THE BIBLE - part 18. We have reached the Book of Judges. Looking back for a moment we can see that Moses strongly advised the people to remain faithful to the Lord God and avoid getting involved with lesser gods. (Deuteronomy 8:7-20) Moses’ successor, Joshua gave the same advice. (Joshua 24:14-24) When Joshua died in the Promised Land God did not appoint a strong successor to him and the people deserted God and followed the lesser gods of the surrounding peoples. (Judges 2:11- ) This went on for several generations so that there were people among the Israelites who never even heard of God. They were no longer successful in battle and they were subdued by their enemies. When they cried for help God appointed judges to lead them out of their distress. The first of these was Othniel (3:9- ), two better known were Deborah (4-5) and Gideon (6-8), but the best known was Samson the strong man (13-16). The story of Samson and Delilah is told in 16:4-31.

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19.

THE BIBLE - part 19. The Book of Ruth is very short, only four pages. It is a story of a woman’s loyalty to her in-laws, about good people being faithful to their customs. Ruth the Moabitess marries into a family from Bethlehem. When all the male members of the family die Ruth follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Judea in search of a father for her hoped-for son. She finds him in Boaz, an aging relative of her dead husband. The son born was to be an ancestor of King David and thus of Jesus as well. Ruth’s name is mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. (Mat 1:5)

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20.

THE BIBLE - part 20. The First Book of Samuel begins with the story of Hannah, the childless wife of a man with two wives. She was tormented by the other wife who had several children. How she got her son Samuel is described in chapter 1. Her thanksgiving song which is regarded as the model for Mary’s song, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is in chapter 2. The call of the boy Samuel to the service of God is in chapter 3. The story of the institution of the monarchy in Israel begins in chapter 8. God advised the people against having a king but they would not listen. The story of Saul, the first king is told in chapters 9-31. David enters the story in chapter 16, his fight with Goliath is told in 17:32-58

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21.
THE BIBLE - part 21. After the death of Saul David became king of Judah and after a few battles king of Israel as well. (Second Book of Samuel 1-5) He captured Jerusalem and called it the City of David. He arranged for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought up to the city. He was happy and danced before the cart carrying the ark. His wife Michal (daughter of Saul) saw him and said, the king has made an exhibition of himself, he behaved like a buffoon”. David replied that he was dancing for the Lord who had made him leader of Israel. (chapter 6)
The ark was still kept in a tent and David decided to build a solid structure for it. The Lord however told him that David was not to build a house for the Lord, the Lord would build a House of David, a dynasty. David’s son would build a temple for the name of the Lord. He was referring to Solomon who followed David on the throne.
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22.
THE BIBLE - part 22. The great sin of David. In the Second Book of Samuel, we read that David saw from the roof of his palace a woman bathing. She was the wife of one of David’s soldiers who was away fighting a war. David had her brought to him and she became pregnant. How he tried to cover up what happened and still had the woman’s husband killed is described in chapter 11. How he was rebuked and his repentance is told in ch. 12. Psalm 50 is said to have been the repentance song of David. We say it every Friday in Morning Prayer. David married the widow and from this wedlock was born the future king Solomon.

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23.

THE BIBLE - part 23. King David died and his son Solomon succeeded him on the throne. God appeared to him in a dream and said: “ask what you would like me to give you.” Solomon acknowledged his inexperience and asked for a heart to understand how to govern and the ability to discern between good and evil. (1Kings 3:4-15) His famous judgement to divide a baby with a sword between the two women claiming to be the mother is also in the same chapter. Solomon built the Temple (ch. 6) and moved the Ark of the Covenant there. His prayer for himself and the people is in ch. 8. The Lord’s reply is in ch. 9. Solomon was famous for his wisdom. The queen of Sheba travelled to meet him and was impressed. (ch.10) Jesus said a thousand years later: the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation…because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, there is something greater than Solomon here. (Luke 11:29-32).

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24.
THE BIBLE - part 24. King Solomon had many foreign wives and in his old age he worshipped their gods and turned away from the living God who made him great. (1Kings 11:1- 13) After his death the country broke up into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. (1Kings 12-13) Most of the kings mentioned in the two Books of Kings were ungodly and they rule ended with the invasions from the North and the deportation of the whole nation. (730-600 BC)

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25.

THE BIBLE - part 25. The miracles of the prophet Elijah are told in 1Kings 17-19. (Elijah spoke with Jesus at the Transfiguration). Some of the stories are very moving and Jesus referred to them in his teachings: the feeding of the starving widow and her son (17:7-16), the ending of the drought (18:41-46), the encounter with God in the still small voice (19:9-13). The story of Naboth’s vineyard is about the terrible sin of the abuse of power by King Ahab (chapter 21). Elijah was carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire (2Kings 2:1-) and succeeded by Elisha. He too was a miracle maker. He obtained a son for the Shunemite woman and later raised him from the dead (2Kings 4:8-37), he multiplied loaves (4:42-), and healed Naaman, the Syrian leper (chapter 5)

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26.
THE BIBLE - part 26. In 721BC the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported its inhabitants and replaced them with people from other areas of their empire. These learned to worship the Lord whom they considered to be the local god. This is the origin of the Samaritans. (2 Kings 17) Ten years later the Southern Kingdom of Judah was also threatened by the Assyrians. The prophet Isaiah appeared as spokesman for God. In 632BC, the Book of the Law was found by men doing repair work in the Temple and this lead to a religious reform in Judah and later in Samaria. (2K 22-23) In 600BC Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon invaded Judah, deported the people, carried away all the altar vessels and furnishings from the Temple and destroyed Jerusalem. (2K 24) This was the end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the period of Exile began.
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27.

THE BIBLE - part 27. The first and second Books of Chronicles cover more or less the same period as the Books of Samuel and Kings. The Books of Ezra and Nehemia cover the end of the 70 years of exile. King Cyrus of Persia – instructed by God - allowed the exiles to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple. Not every one wanted to return. The first group numbered only 42 thousand and they faced many difficulties.
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28.

THE BIBLE - part 28. The Book of Tobit is an exile story about Tobias, the son of Tobit, being helped by the Archangel Raphael to marry a girl whose seven husbands were all killed by a demon on the wedding night. The Book of Judith relates how a young woman rescued a town besieged by the Assyrian army by walking over to their camp and pretending to be a deserter. She killed and beheaded their general in chief. The Book of Esther is another exile story about Esther from the tribe of Benjamin saving the lives of her compatriots.

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