OTHCC Chapter 31: items 601 - 620

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

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The ''Code of Legal Holiness'' (Lev 17-26) emphasizes

a.   being holy in the conduct of one's life.
b.   maintaining the laws of legal purity.
c.   the proper ritual for sacrifices.

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Above all, Leviticus contains many detailed instructions. Leviticus emphasizes that intimacy with God is achieved only in the particular. Catholics agree. There is no abstract or ''generic'' intimacy with God - none at all.

Throughout history, just like today, many people have believed the opposite. Many modern people, exactly like people in the tribes and countries surrounding the Jewish people in ancient times, believe that you don't really have to get too specific to be in an intimate relationship with God. You can pick and choose from among a variety of gods. You can pick and choose from among a variety of religions and behaviors and practices. You can even mix and match according to your tastes.

You may believe this yourself. Deep down you may think that the specifics of ''religion'' couldn't really matter. Deep down you may think that people ought to be able to have an intimate union with God no matter what they believe, or even no matter what they do. Deep down you may think that being Catholic couldn't possibly matter as much as the Catholic Church professes that it does.

So (perhaps throughout your life) you may have to ask yourself: is Jesus in intimate union with one specific, real Bride - or is he still playing the field? Did he freely choose the specific, real Catholic Church to be his Bride, but is now unfaithful? Was he at one time in intimate union with the specific Catholic Church, but has now abandoned her because he found a church more to his liking? >>

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Is he still looking around for his ''ideal Bride'' and in the meantime making a partial commitment to many partial ''Brides'' including but not limited to the Catholic Church? Or is he the type who just can't get enough? Is he ''in love with love,'' passionately and specifically committed - to many different ''Brides'' at once?

As you can see, the New Covenant itself, the intimate and forever union of Christ with his one-and-only Body and Bride, the specific, real Catholic Church, is completely incompatible with the idea that intimacy with God can be ''generic.''

It's obvious that even the thought of generic ''religion'' instantly turns Jesus into the lowest form of life on the planet, and turns the ''intimacy'' he offers into something cheap and coarse and untrustworthy - and entirely un-intimate. It may take you a long time to decide that you want the real thing instead. It's your decision.

We know that if, through no fault of their own, men do not know Christ and his Church, they can be saved if they sincerely try to draw near to God [CCC 847]. However, every single aspect of their partial intimacy with God depends on the full intimacy of Christ and his Catholic Church. [CCC 819]

Being Catholic has to be a free choice - God will force no one to be in intimate union with him: ''The soul only enters freely into the communion of love.'' [CCC 2002] However, if you really want FULL intimacy with God in this life, you must SPECIFICALLY be a Catholic. You must be baptized, and receive our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist. That's why being Catholic is so important - and why you are so lucky to be Catholic.

You don't deserve it. You're not worthy of it. You're just lucky.

Christ will never force you to be with him in such an intimate, special, particular, specific way. Every day of your life, whenever you want, you can turn him down. You can walk away. It's your choice.

Yet every man, no matter who he is, can be as lucky as you, if he possesses the knowledge that he can be just as lucky as you, and if that's what he really wants. <<

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Note: Do NOT restate the incorrect answers to this question. Only the correct answer has meaningful content.

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 New Testament quotes or refers to passages in the book of Deuteronomy about how many times?

a.   200.
b.   300.
c.   400.

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Many modern scholars believe that Deuteronomy weaves together many legal traditions from far older times in the life of the Jewish people in order to

a.   ensure that the Jewish people would continue to be curious about them.
b.   provide a new pattern of life for the Jewish people after a great crisis.
c.   reinforce the value of traditional institutions such as the monarchy.

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The Catholic Church affirms that Deuteronomy, along with the rest of the Pentateuch, is connected with Moses. However, Catholics are not required to profess that Moses himself wrote Deuteronomy. Many modern scholars suggest that Deuteronomy has a ''frame story''; in other words, Deuteronomy pictures Moses solemnly speaking to the Jewish people four last times, just as they are preparing to enter the land promised to them. Read Deut 1:1-8. Read Deut 4:44-49, 5:1. Read Deut 29:1-2. Read Deut 33:1. Within this ''frame story'' Deuteronomy gives its teaching

a.   of faithful obedience to the laws of the covenant.
b.   that God is sorry he created the heavens and the earth.
c.   that Israel will surely be destroyed because of its sins.

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In Deuteronomy, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, the ''obedience'' required of man by God is strongly associated with - is virtually synonymous with -

a.   blind evil.
b.   faithful love.
c.   terrible slavery.

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Many scholars have said that much of Deuteronomy takes a form similar in language and style to that of an ancient treaty or covenant between a superior ruler and an inferior nation. In the addresses in Deuteronomy Moses typically

- reminds the people of how the LORD saved them with power
- makes a plea for obedience
- gives the laws by which the covenant can be kept
- renews the promise of life in the land IF the covenant is kept

''Horeb'' in Deuteronomy is Mount Sinai, the place where God first gave Moses the law. Now Moses and the people are in Moab, just prior to entering the land that God promised. Read Deut 29:1. Here Deuteronomy reveals that the law Moses gives in Deuteronomy

a.   cancels the law he received from God on Mount Sinai.
b.   continues the law he received from God on Mount Sinai.
c.   supersedes the law he received from God on Mount Sinai.

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Read Deut 5:1-6:3. The Ten Commandments are given

a.   as the commands of an insane and jealous dictator who does not understand reality.
b.   as the means to keep the covenant and thus live intimately with God in happiness.
c.   to harm the people and make them endure perpetual suffering because of all their sins.

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Human nature being what it is, there may come a time when obeying one of the Ten Commandments temporarily seems intolerable, or even insane, to you. Please don't let these thoughts of the moment lead you to think that God gave the Ten Commandments to harm you, or that he gave them because he doesn't understand the real you. The Catholic Church confirms the view of Deuteronomy: not wishing to follow the Ten Commandments always means that God is just fine, and it's you who are temporarily confused.

You protest that you personally could never become so confused that you begin to ''think'' (using the term loosely) that sin is actually a good idea?

The sacrament of Penance will still be there after you wake up and remember how wrong you are about that. <<

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Read Deut 6:4-25. What is the meaning and purpose of the laws given in Deuteronomy? They

a.   have no actual meaning, but are arbitrary symbols of faithfulness.
b.   have no actual purpose, but nonetheless we can trust the LORD.
c.   were given so that the people could remain in the life of the LORD.

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Read Deut 6:4-5. Read Mathew 22:35-40. Quoting Deuteronomy and then Leviticus, Jesus ties together the whole law in two commandments. Here we briefly discuss another topic, a small but somewhat interesting point regarding the translation of Deut 6:4. Some translations say, ''The LORD our God is one LORD.'' Others say, ''The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.''

What's the difference? Many scholars now think that ''the LORD alone'' better reflects the original context of this text. What is that context? That there were many gods, the LORD being one of them. So, the ''literal sense'' might be, ''although there are many gods, the LORD alone is our God.''

Of course, over time the Jewish people themselves gradually understood these very ancient texts in a further way. They gradually understood that there was an additional reason that their devotion to the LORD had to be so strict and faithful: the other gods did not actually exist. They were illusions.

What the best of these scholars seem to be noticing when they point out the differing translations of Deut 6:4 is that time itself can be holy, if it passes in the presence of God. By means of God's presence with them in time, the Jewish people first gradually learned to distinguish the LORD from false gods, and then gradually learned that the false gods are illusions, empty shells, not alive at all.

Was all that time learning more clearly who the LORD was wasted?

Only if time spent with God is wasted. <<

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Some scholars have said that Deut 27:9-10 is a key to understanding Deuteronomy. Read Deut 27:9-10 now. These scholars say that this passage reveals that the people of Israel are to obey God's laws as set down in Deuteronomy

a.   because the LORD has graciously entered their history, made them his people, and offered them a life of faithful love.
b.   because in this way they can bargain God into giving them the land and all the other things they want.
c.   or else the LORD is going to wreck their cities, destroy the Temple, and kill every single one of them.

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A siege occurs when a city is surrounded by an army that can not take it directly and tries to bombard it or starve it into surrender. There are passages in Deuteronomy which many scholars think show that the ancient laws and traditions were collected together and edited into the book of Deuteronomy first during the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon, and also after Israel's defeat and Exile. They say that Deut 28:47-68 may depict some of the actual gruesome sufferings and sins of the siege of Jerusalem and the Exile. But what does Deuteronomy consistently say is the true reason for these horrible things? Read Deut 28:47-68 and then answer.

a.   Israel's leaders were simply not smart enough to make the proper military alliances.
b.   Israel was disobedient to the LORD by failing to faithfully keep covenant with him.
c.   Israel was a weak and unimportant kingdom that was crushed like so many others.

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Some scholars think that ''life'' in Deuteronomy specifically means human life lived in intimate union with God. ''Good'' is then the ''blessing'' - all the consequences of this intimacy. ''Death'' therefore is human life apart from God. It is more than just physical death. All the terrible consequences of the refusal of intimacy with God is the ''curse'' - ''evil.'' Now read Deut 30:15-20, which many scholars consider to be the summit of Deuteronomy, the heart of its teaching. What is the entire purpose of Israel?

a.   To love the LORD.
b.   To be rich and successful.
c.   To be slaves of the LORD.

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Read Deut 30:1-14. Here Moses says that understanding the law and then actually following it is

a.   far beyond man's capacities.
b.   possible for the ordinary man.
c.   the job of a few saints.

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Deuteronomy is the great book of the law of the Old Covenant. Following her Lord who taught her this, the Catholic Church professes that while the law is ''holy, spiritual, and good'' [CCC 1963] it is imperfect and can not save man, because it can not remove sin. There is a deeper problem that the law can only reveal, but not heal. Something deep in man's heart has been wounded, turned away from God. On account of the sin of our first parents, every human being, save Mary the Mother of God herself [CCC 491-492], begins life with a wound in his heart that twists him away from God.

This wound is now part of man's fallen human nature and thus is utterly beyond man's powers to heal. [CCC 403-404] The fact of this deep wound and the whole mystery of the Fall and its effects can be seen clearly only in relation to Christ. [CCC 388]

It is the solemn profession of the whole Catholic Church that the New Covenant is absolutely necessary to the holiness of human life. For the Catholic, Deuteronomy reveals the truth, and yet a truth that is only fully revealed in Christ. An ordinary man can live a holy life. Being holy is not something too hard for him or too high above him. Yet this is possible only in and through the New Covenant established in the life and sacrificial death of Jesus and continually made re-present in the Eucharist. Now read CCC 2007 - 2011. <<

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Most modern scholars think that the following six books are closely associated with Deuteronomy and with each other and form a larger unit in the Old Testament:

Joshua
Judges
1 and 2 Samuel
1 and 2 Kings

Many ancient traditions of the Jewish people seem to have been brought together and edited in these books. That does not mean that each of the books says the same thing or that they have the same viewpoint. For instance, in distinct contrast to the book of Judges, the book of Joshua

a.   describes an easy and speedy conquest of the promised land under the competent leadership of Joshua.
b.   outlines a very slow and uncertain occupation of the land with the help of various military leaders and advisors.
c.   shows the pattern of good and bad kings that governed Israel up to the time of the Exile in Babylon.

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Most scholars find a consistent pattern in Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, a pattern that is reinforced by the teaching of Deuteronomy: the LORD

a.   approaches his people, they turn from him, and the people suffer.
b.   makes promises to Israel which he never expects to fulfill.
c.   rejects the people of Israel, in spite of their continual faithfulness.

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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.

Roughly the first half of Joshua

a.   describes the conquest of Canaan.
b.   is a census of the people of Israel.
c.   restates the laws given to Moses.

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copyright (c) 2001 John Kelleher. All rights reserved.
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