BIBLE STUDY: ORIENTATION TO SALVATION HISTORY

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 the 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 adverted 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 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.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS

Session One: The Creation

Readings: For this session, readers should read the first and second chapters of the Book of Genesis.

Enrichment materials—The Creation

The materials dealing with the first chapter of the Book of Genesis are voluminous in the Fathers of the Church. Therefore, the selections given below concentrate on only a few particular verses, but they give us a feel for the method, which the Fathers use in interpreting the Scripture. 

An important enrichment material for our study is the Commentary on the Book of Genesis by St. Ephrem the Syrian (+373), just as, we will see, his Hymns on Paradise will be an important interpretive source for the next chapter.

Saint Ephrem is fascinated by the description of the Spirit of God “hovering over the waters” at the beginning of Creation. He immediately connects this primordial “hovering” with the Mystery of Baptism.

“The Holy Spirit warmed the waters with a kind of vital warmth, even bringing them to a boil through intense heat in order to make them fertile. The action of a hen is similar. It sits on its eggs, making them fertile through the warmth of incubation. Here then, the Holy Spirit foreshadows the sacrament of holy baptism, prefiguring its arrival, so that the waters made fertile by the hovering of that same divine Spirit might give birth to the children of God…

It was appropriate t reveal here that the Spirit hovered in order for us to learn that the work of creation was held in common by the Spirit with the Father and the Son. The Father spoke. The Son created. And so it was also right that the Spirit offer its work, clearly shown through its hovering, in order to demonstrate its unity with the other Persons. Thus we learn that all was brought to perfection and accomplished by the Trinity.”

Origen (+ca. 250), on the other hand, interprets the later reference to the waters of the seas (in contrast to the dry land) in verse nine as a reference to the life of virtue versus vice.

“Let us labor, therefore, to gather ‘the water that is under heaven’ and cast it from us that ‘the dry land,’ which is our deeds done in the flesh, might appear. When this has been done, ‘men, seeing our good works may glorify our Father Who is in heaven.’ For if we have not separated from us those waters that are under heaven, that is, the sins and vices of our body, our dry land will not be able to appear nor have the courage to advance to the light…. The dry land, after the water was removed from it, did not continue further as “dry land” but was named “earth” by God. In this manner also our bodies, if this separation from them takes place, will no longer remain “dry land.” They will, on the contrary, be called “earth” because they can now bear fruit for God.”

Another interesting issue surrounds the abundant commentaries concerning the creation of plants alongside the account of the creation of the sun and moon. Through the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church, it is possible to gaze into the Ancient World and see the compelling reasons why the late date of the creation of the sun in Moses’ account was necessary and, indeed, revolutionary.  This first story of Creation, it turns out, is not so much a chronological account (as it would seem to be) but a pecking order of precedence and importance. This pecking order is liturgical. It calls for the most important things to come first, but the most important persons to come last. Plants are more important than fish, birds and brute beasts, because they constitute the original food of mankind and the food of all the above mentioned creatures. 

The greatest surprise in this Mosaic pecking order is in the creation of the sun. Among ancient peoples there was a very pronounced religious heliocentrism. Thus, in the context of the worship of the True God, the sun (and the moon, which was also frequently honored as a deity) are considered less important that the things of here and now, especially plants. The Fathers of the Church notice this repeatedly and point it out again and again. For example, St. Basil the Great (+379) tells us:

The adornment of the earth is older than the sun, that those who have been misled may cease worshiping the sun as the origin of life.

And St. Ambrose of Milan (+397) continues the same thought:

Let everyone be informed that the sun is not the author of vegetation…. How can the sun give the faculty of life to growing plants when these have already been brought forth by the life-giving creative power of God before the sun entered into such a life as this? The sun is younger than the green shoot, younger than the green plant.

When we read “younger” in the quotes above, we should understand it as “less important” or “of less immediate concern.” Thus, the Scriptures correct the pagans who made a habit of worshiping the sun and moon as gods.

Again, the order of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis is liturgical, rather than historical. It is teaching us by means of story and narrative what we should value most and what we should hold in less regard. The most important things come first in this order. Thus we see that the most important thing is the light. The light is the only creation of the first day. This we recognize typologically to be a foreshadowing of the restoration and regeneration of mankind in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus on the first day of the week.  For this reason, since the days of the Early Church, Christians have honored Christ as “the True Light,” as we see in the Gospel According to Saint John, “in Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men, and the Light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Similarly, at Vespers everyday, we continue to honor Christ as “the True Light.” In the Evening Hymn, we sing to Him, “Tranquil Light, Light and Holy Glory of the Father Immortal, the Heavenly, Holy, the Blessed One, O Jesus Christ” (Світло Тихе, Святої Слави, Безсмертного Отця небесного, Святого, Блаженного, Ісусе Христе).

On the other hand, the liturgical order demands that the most important persons be last. Indeed, the last thing in the universe to be created is the crown of the entire work of creation: the image of God Himself, the human person.

QUESTIONS

1.       How does reading the creation account as a description of what is most important as opposed to the things that are of less importance, instead of reading it as an historical account, change our outlook on the text and on God’s Creation itself?

In what ways can this biblical “order of precedence” reorient our priorities in the here and now? What critiques could it offer to the tendencies of modern environmental movements?