AN INTRODUCTORY BIBLE STUDY: ORIENTATION TO SALVATION HISTORY

Introduction

The purpose of this Bible study is to twofold. On the one hand, it is to teach the basic story of salvation in such a way that it can be followed as a continuous narrative. Second, it is to teach students, especially our young people, to navigate the volume of the Scriptures itself. This twofold purpose was born of the fact that I found many of young people so unfamiliar with the use of the Bible that they could not find passages nor even books without reference to page numbers. The problem is obvious, since there has never been a standard edition of the Scriptures keyed to page numbers. No, rather, the Christian people have always known the basic order of the books, and have then located passages based on their standard chapters and verses. While chapters and verses do tend to differ slightly from one version to another, the differences are seldom significant enough to prevent readers from finding the referenced passages. The difference in numbering in the Psalter between those versions used by the historical Churches (based on the Septuagint) and those versions employed by Protestants (and, today, sadly, most English Bibles) is well known, and yet, even there, once the difference is understood and averted to, it rarely prevents the informed reader from finding the referenced passage.

Thus, what is needed is a Bible study that will simply provide an orientation to the basic events of salvation history, since, understanding the basic timeline is the beginning to understanding the order of the books. This Bible study, therefore, seeks to teach the following simple timeline of biblical history, accompanied with appropriate readings. It would be good for the reader to begin by memorizing the timeline.

• Prehistory: The Creation, the Fall of Man
•  Ca. 3000 B.C The Universal Flood
• Ca. 2000 B.C. The Life of the Patriarch Abraham and his descendants the Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob
•  Ca. 1800- 1400 B.C. The captivity of the people of Israel in Egypt and their Exodus from Egypt to the Land of Promise
• 1400-1000 B.C.  The time of the Judges
• 1000 B.C. The beginning of the united Kingdom of Israel, ruled by its three kings: Saul, David and Solomon
• 729 B.C. The destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians
• 587 B.C.—536 B.C. The deportation of the people of Israel to Babylon
• 200 B.C.  The time of the Maccabees
• AD 1—The birth of Christ
• AD 33—The death and Resurrection of Christ
• AD 100—The death of the last Apostle (St. John the Theologian)

The above timeline is color coded to divide it into sections. The first section (light green) is made up of material that is entirely found in the Book of Genesis. The second section (light blue) contains material found in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The third section (purple) reflects material that is found in the Book of Judges. The fourth section (red) is representative of material found in the Books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, the Wisdom Literature and the Prophetic Books. The fifth section (dark green) is composed of material found in the Books of Maccabees. The sixth section reflects materials found in the Gospels, and the seventh section is representative of the materials found in the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Epistles.

The study itself will consist of three parts: the readings themselves, enrichment materials and questions for personal meditation. The emphasis throughout will be upon the literal and spiritual meanings of the Scriptures. The readings will be sufficient to orient the reader to the literal meaning of the text, and the enrichment materials (drawn from the Fathers of the Church) will help to orient the reader to the wealth of spiritual interpretation of the text in the Christian Tradition, especially typology. The questions (designed to be used in the context of meditation) can serve to move the Word of God from the mind into the heart, where it is meant to speak to each one of us individually and change us according to God’s Will. By means of the questions, it is hoped that the reader will learn to formulate his own thoughts for meditation, learning as well to apply the text to his own life and context.

The whole of the study is designed for a total of twenty-eight weeks, with four weeks being spent on each of the abovementioned sections. In this way, each of the sections can be said to stand alone in the sense that each will teach, after a fashion, the message of the entire study by means of the typological examples that are supplied by the enrichment materials. Thus, readers learn to read each section of the Bible in a truly Catholic way, being enlightened by the Tradition to hear in the words of the Scriptures not just words, by the Word, the Living Christ.