OTHCC Chapter 100: items 1981 - 2000

The Old Testament in the Heart of the Catholic Church < > All Chapters

{1981}      Down

All Israel (that is, the Kingdom of Judah) is under the control of the ''king of the Chaldeans,'' the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Jeremiah has previously counseled Zedekiah to submit to Babylon's rule. Read Jeremiah, Jer 25:1-11. Now read Second Chronicles, 2 Chr 36:11-21. Also, compare this passage to Ps 78:62-64. What happens to Jerusalem?

a.   it and the Temple are destroyed, and its people are killed or taken as slaves.
b.   it endures a great battle and severe trials, but its people emerge unscathed.
c.   it remains unshaken by the trials going around it, because of God's help.

{1982}      Down       Up

Read Ps 137. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the exile in Babylon

a.   caused all the people of Israel to abandon God.
b.   had a very deep effect on the people of Israel.
c.   had very little effect on the people of Israel.

{1983}      Down       Up

Read 2 Chr 36:22-23. Did the Babylonian captivity ever end, and were Jerusalem and the Temple eventually rebuilt?

a.   Maybe.
b.   No.
c.   Yes.

{1984}      Down       Up

Read Ezra 3. Read Nehemiah, Neh 8:1-11. After the Exile, the people of Israel

a.   did not rebuild the Temple but began again to hear and understand the Law.
b.   rebuilt the Temple and began again to hear and understand the Law.
c.   rebuilt the Temple but failed again to hear and understand the Law.

{1985} Down Up

Every year, three great festivals were celebrated in the Temple and its surrounding court. Passover was the first, in the spring. Now read Tobit, Tob 2:1. Pentecost was the next great feast, celebrated seven weeks after Passover. Read Deuteronomy, Deut 16:13-15. Finally, Ingathering or the Feast of Booths was celebrated in the fall.

The ''bread of the Presence'' or showbread consisted of twelve loaves of unleavened bread that were brought every Sabbath and set aside on a special table for the priests. The bread of the Presence was a reminder of the LORD's covenant with the twelve tribes of Israel. Read Leviticus, Lev 24:5-9.

From CCC 2581:

''For the People of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education in prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread of the Presence (''shewbread'') - all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer.'' <<

{1986}      Down       Up

When Israel returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the Temple, they

a.   kept covenant with God with imperfect purity thereafter.
b.   kept covenant with God with perfect purity thereafter.
c.   kept no further covenant with God thereafter.

{1987} Down Up

The Catholic Church accepts as inspired Word of God several Old Testament books specifically rejected by the Jewish people, and called ''apocryphal'' (of doubtful inspiration) by Protestants. The books that only the Catholic Church accepts as definitively inspired by God are starred * in the following list. Also, there are parts of Esther and Daniel that are only accepted by Catholics.

The Catholic center of the Old Testament might be the Psalms: ''Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time.'' [CCC 2597]

In any event, it is helpful to think of the Psalms as the centerpiece of the Old Testament - the Psalms are in fact fairly close to the middle of the Old Testament as Catholics arrange it. The Psalms are like a hinge near the middle:

               Psalms
Genesis                     Proverbs
Exodus                      Ecclesiastes
Leviticus                   Song of Songs
Numbers                     Wisdom*
Deuteronomy                 Sirach*

Joshua                      Isaiah
Judges                      Jeremiah
Ruth                        Lamentations
1 Samuel                    Baruch*
2 Samuel                    Ezekiel
1 Kings                     Daniel
2 Kings
                            Hosea
1 Chronicles                Joel
2 Chronicles                Amos
Ezra                        Obadiah
Nehemiah                    Jonah
                            Micah
Tobit*                      Nahum
Judith*                     Habakkuk
Esther                      Zephaniah
1 Maccabees*                Haggai
2 Maccabees*                Zechariah
Job                         Malachi

{1988} Down Up

Just for your information, most modern scholars link:

Deuteronomy
::
Joshua
Judges
(but not Ruth)
First and Second Samuel
First and Second Kings

They find a common theological perspective and a common editorial hand in these books. They also find that the final editor has woven together many different fragments from many different traditions kept and preserved from Israel's past into a single history.

If this is all true, is it interesting? Yes. We can reflect on how the final editor found a way to preserve and hand on the faithful witness of so many people from so many centuries. So, both the faith of one person at a particular time, and the faith of many people over hundreds of years, made a huge difference and helped God to speak his Word to men. And yet the names of them all, both the one and the many, are now unknown to us.

We don't even know the names of people who gave us so much - yet their names, all of them, every one, are surely known so well and with such great love by God, who we pray gives each one of them eternal life in heaven with him. Since we know that the Church has always honored certain Old Testament figures as saints [CCC 61], surely God preserves the lives of the faithful ones who helped him to give us his Word.

If these books came into existence in some other way than the way most scholars now think, does it affect your union with Christ? Nope. <<

{1989}      Down       Up

The word ''typology'' has a special meaning within the Catholic Church. Typology is

a.   hegemonic privileging of meaning by an oppressor religious culture.
b.   seeing in God's works in the Old Testament a pre-echo of the works of his Son.
c.   the art of trivializing the literal sense of the Old Testament until it vanishes.

{1990}      Down       Up

When referring to persons or events in the Old Testament, the word type refers to a person or event with typological meaning. The Church has often seen Moses as a type of Christ. Why?

a.   He approached God by taking off his shoes and hiding his face, and protesting that he was not worthy to do his work.
b.   He led his people from slavery to freedom and gave them the law, the means by which they could keep covenant with God.
c.   He petitioned the great Pharaoh, king of the earth, for freedom, and watched as God sent plagues to make Pharaoh comply.

{1991} Down Up

Moses's position in the Old Testament is unparalleled. He is the human key both to the Exodus by which God freed Israel, and to the covenant that God made with Israel on Mount Sinai that gave the Law by which Israel still lives. As CCC 61 implies, Moses is a saint recognized by all the Catholic Church's liturgical traditions. You should look very carefully at the incorrect answers to the preceding question, to understand more deeply just how far above even the great Moses Christ reveals himself to be.

Finally, you should read in the gospel of John: Jn 8:51-58. Now you know the full weight of Jesus's ''I AM'' in that passage. <<

{1992} Down Up

We move farther from Christ - much farther from him - if we think that the Fall was not a real event. [CCC 389] Of course, if the Fall is just a charming story, then man is certainly not responsible for the entry of suffering and death into the world. If the Fall is just a story, then man wasn't even there when suffering and death entered the world.

Man was there. Our first parents are directly and specifically responsible for the entry of suffering and death into the world. Persuaded by the father of lies, the devil, our first parents made a free choice to fall into death from envy of God. As free creatures, they got their wish, and their original sin permanently marked all of human history. This is the solemn teaching of the Catholic Church. [CCC 390-391]

That is not to say that you are going to be able to go back in a time machine to find the Fall. The Fall was a ''primeval event.'' [CCC 390] It occurred at the beginning of the history of man. Man can never go back to the Garden of Eden. He can never go back before he was fallen - not ever, not even to find the Fall. >>

{1993} Down Up

Why is that? The Fall was no game. There were no ''take backs.'' God had given our first parents real freedom, not a pretend kind. When they chose to have themselves and the entire universe fall into death and suffering, they got their wish.

By his death, Jesus freely preserves the terrible freedom of Adam and Eve's sin. God did not ''take back'' the most hideous consequences of the Fall even regarding himself. He freely endured torture, and an agonizing death on the Cross.

Jesus literally suffered and died. He did not do that to save us from a metaphor. He literally suffered and died because Adam and Eve were real, they really were free, they really made a free choice to sin, and they really did get their wish. To preserve man's terrible freedom, God freely does not take sin back. Instead, sweetly and without complaint, our Lord takes sin upon his shoulders, the pain and suffering and death of the whole world. This is how he conquers it, and saves us.

Your own sins add to our Lord's suffering on the Cross. That is not pretend. Yet the sacraments are also not pretend. In Baptism you are baptized into his death - his death takes the place of your own. Though you still suffer death's consequences just as he did, death is no longer the last word of your life, for you are in union with his Body, the Catholic Church, and his resurrection can be your resurrection.

Now part of his Body, and sinner though you are, your body, your life, can be part of the gifts brought up to the altar at the Offertory. At Mass, as the Lamb of God offers his one sacrifice to the Father, you are free as even Adam was not. Now, if only you wish it, your body, your life, united to our Lord's in the Eucharist, can help take away the sins of the world. That is not a metaphor, not a story. It is the truth. <<

{1994} Down Up

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy || Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings || 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah || Tobit* Judith* Esther 1 Maccabees* 2 Maccabees* Job

Psalms

Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Wisdom* Sirach* || Isaiah Jeremiah >> Lamentations << Baruch* Ezekiel Daniel || Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi

The Old Testament books with a star * are not any more or less important than the others. The star indicates that the Catholic Church definitively professes and knows these books to be part of the sacred writings, the inspired Word of God [cf. CCC 120], but that they are specifically rejected by the Jewish people, and called ''apocryphal'' (of doubtful inspiration) by Protestants.

The book of Lamentations appears to be a collection of five

a.   histories.
b.   poems.
c.   prophecies.

{1995}      Down       Up

Read Lam 1:1-3. Lamentations appears to be concerned with

a.   reflections on suffering not tied to any specific event.
b.   the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon.
c.   the political context explaining why Jerusalem fell.

{1996}      Down       Up

If you read Lamentations 1 in Hebrew, you would notice that each stanza in the poem

a.   begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
b.   has a radically different theme than the one before.
c.   rhymes with the verse just preceding it.

{1997} Down Up

The first four poems in Lamentations are acrostics - each stanza in the poem begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Poets from many different times and cultures have sometimes combined a rigid formal structure (such as an acrostic) with expressions of overwhelming emotion. For example, read Lam 2:18-22.

Read Lam 5:16-22. When Lamentations is read in the synagogue Jews repeat 5:21 again after finishing the reading of Lamentations. In this way they emphasize the teaching of Lamentations that, in the midst of devastation, God will yet save his people. <<

{1998} Down Up

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy || Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings || 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah || Tobit* Judith* Esther 1 Maccabees* 2 Maccabees* Job

Psalms

>> Proverbs << Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Wisdom* Sirach* || Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Baruch* Ezekiel Daniel || Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi

The Old Testament books with a star * are not any more or less important than the others. The star indicates that the Catholic Church definitively professes and knows these books to be part of the sacred writings, the inspired Word of God [cf. CCC 120], but that they are specifically rejected by the Jewish people, and called ''apocryphal'' (of doubtful inspiration) by Protestants.

For a hint before answering this question, read Proverbs, Prov 25:1 and Prov 30:1. According to most scholars, the book of Proverbs is largely

a.   a collection of proverbs.
b.   a collection of collections of proverbs.
c.   random proverbs.

{1999}      Down       Up

Read Prov 1:1-6. Many books in the Old Testament emphasize faith, worship, and obedience to the Law. Many scholars think that Proverbs, while not speaking against any of these, instead emphasizes

a.   following one's instincts and trusting in one's personal knowledge.
b.   intelligent mastery of life through understanding and good acts.
c.   taking a critical stance toward the teachings of previous generations.

{2000}      Up

Many scholars say that the book of Proverbs contains both proverbs, and ''instruction.'' Both proverbs and instructions, these scholars say, were used widely throughout the ancient near East as methods of educating children. Instruction in Proverbs is similar to an ancient Egyptian wisdom form in which a father gives advice to his son. Read Prov 1:7-16. This is the beginning of

a.   an instruction.
b.   a proverb.
c.   a saying.

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