OTHCC Chapter 45: items 881 - 900

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

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Finally, scholars who do not leave the final judgment about the meaning of the Bible to Jesus, acting in and through the judgments of the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him, may also come to erroneous conclusions about the literal sense of a particular passage.

To the extent that it can, this course will teach you what the majority of reputable scholars today think might be the literal sense of many passages in the Old Testament. It will cue you that it is doing this by writing that 'most scholars' or that 'many scholars' think something.

In twenty or a hundred years, other scripture scholars may think that 'most scholars' today were full of baloney when they told us what the literal sense of a particular passage was. These future scholars may also think that our scripture scholars were exactly right about the literal sense of some other passages.

All this course can do is tell you what most of our scholars today think, and ask you to take everything they say seriously, but also with a little grain of salt. Our scholars are only human, and so are we. What else can we do but our best, with the information we now have? >>

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You may have thought that the 'literal sense' of a passage was a simple concept. To an extent, you are correct. For centuries, people did think that.

Sometimes when we progress in knowledge, things get simpler. To account for the motion of the planets in the sky, people used to have a very, very complicated and elaborate system. Now, a few basic equations do the same work much better.

However, sometimes we realize that things are much more complicated than we previously had thought. Not so very long ago, even highly educated people thought that everything in the physical universe was made up of combinations of only four basic things: earth, air, fire, and water. Now we understand that it's much, much more complicated than that.

The 'literal sense' is like that. We understand its meaning better now, and that meaning is much more complicated than we had thought.

That's life! <<

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Read Gen 11:1-9. In [CCC 57] the Holy Father and the bishops teach that God ''confused the languages of all the earth'' and thus prevented men from building the tower and city of Babel because

a.   God was divinely jealous of man's powers and did not abide them.
b.   the truth is that man is not meant to know the mysteries of God.
c.   the unity that fallen man can forge entirely on his own is perverse.

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Some scholars have said that the name ''Babel'' refers to the real city of

a.   Babel.
b.   Babylon.
c.   Nineveh.

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Babylon was the capital of a great and powerful ancient empire. The Babylonian ziggurat (a kind of giant pyramid with steps and an altar at the top) may have been the model for the tower of Babel. (It also may not have been). However, as the story itself makes clear, it was the building of the entire city of false unity, not just the tower, that offended God. Men ''left off building the city,'' not just the tower. <<

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The Holy Father and the bishops teach [CCC 57] that humanity now experiences a disunity that is

a.   ''cosmic, social, and religious.''
b.   ''illusory and unreal.''
c.   ''total and complete.''

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The Holy Father and the bishops teach [CCC 57] that humanity now experiences a disunity that

a.   is limited to isolated circumstances.
b.   is not as significant as once thought.
c.   man's powers can not overcome.

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The Holy Father and the bishops teach [CCC 56] that the disunity humanity now experiences

a.   assists God in his efforts to save men.
b.   does not limit God's ability to save men.
c.   limits God's ability to save men.

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Some people have said that God has to make humanity unified before he can save it. Thus the actual salvation of actual people (such as yourself) is just pretend or vicarious, since only a perfect, completely unified humanity at the end of time can be saved. The Holy Father and bishops say [CCC 55-56] that this idea

a.   is not true.
b.   is true.
c.   might be true.

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God seeks to save the real, only partially united world that you live in right now. The Catechism plainly states that God ''at once'' sought to save the shattered world right in the middle of its disunity, ''part by part.'' [CCC 56] God is stronger than death itself. He is certainly stronger than any amount of human disunity. He saves real men - like you - in the real world of human disunity. <<

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A serious implication of the Fall, which is shown by Babel, is that human unity

a.   can now only be partial.
b.   is completely destroyed.
c.   is forever beyond man.

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Even after the Fall, humanity does not evaporate into total disunity. Human unity, and thus humanity itself, is wounded but not annihilated by the Fall. God saves ''part by part'' - because there are still ''parts'' to save. These are the ''nations'' - real but partial unions of humanity.

As Babel shows, even consciously apart from God and by himself, fallen man is at least partially conscious of his need for unity. The men of Babel wish to build, ''lest we be scattered.'' [Gen 11:4] Moreover, Babel shows that fallen men clearly have enough power to build a city of partial unity by themselves. <<

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Babel shows that

a.   the achievements of a society that has turned from God are not real.
b.   an impressive society with real achievements is faithful to God.
c.   an impressive society with real achievements may not be faithful to God.

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Babel shows that

a.   the unity of a society that has turned from God is not real.
b.   an impressive society with real unity is faithful to God.
c.   an impressive society with real unity may not be faithful to God.

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The twelve books of the ''minor prophets'' beginning with Hosea are traditionally placed together at the very end of the Old Testament. These books are called ''minor'' because they are

a.   all short in length.
b.   more conventional.
c.   of lesser importance.

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The books

First and Second Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah

occur before or after the Psalms?

a.   before
b.   after

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The books

First and Second Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah

are often thought of as a unit because

a.   they give the history of the people of Israel after Moses's death until the Exile.
b.   they give the history of the people of Israel from Abraham to Moses's death.
c.   they trace Israel's history from King David until the rebuilding of the Temple.

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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.

1 and 2 Chronicles covers the kings from David to the Exile - the same ground covered by 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. According to many scholars, the basic viewpoint of 1 and 2 Chronicles

a.   is exactly the same as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.
b.   is very different from 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.
c.   slightly differs from 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.

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1 Chronicles

a.   faithfully records David's sinful lust for Bathsheba.
b.   makes only passing mention of David's sins and difficulties.
c.   portrays David as the perfect model of the ideal king.

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Regarding Solomon's numerous foreign wives and his worship of their false gods, 2 Chronicles

a.   condemns it.
b.   excuses it.
c.   never mentions it.

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