Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study House rules/notes… 1. Meetup is www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy Zoom Meeting Logon info is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can ask in the chat, email the Meetup group, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. 3. The unedited recaps from our meetings will be posted on Meetup immediately after our meeting. The final edited recap will be posted on our Catholic Catacombs Light website https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/blog, a week later. You will be notified via Meetup of both. 4. See The Chosen. Knowing Jesus Christ means being able to better relate to God. Check it out: The Chosen at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 5. Respectfulness. As we will occasionally discuss differences between religions and or between Christian denominations, we agree to use respectful words and tones. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ; I personally owe a part of my return to the faith to them. 6. No politics. It would be easy for us to self-destruct; however, that’s not our goal. Our goal is to learn the Bible, explain the Catholic faith, and help each other develop a closer relationship with the Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit in our daily lives. 7. Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup led by fellow member Jason Goldberg: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/ 8. Prison fellowship – opportunities to volunteer one Saturday per month for 2 hours (12-2 or 2-4) serving Catholic prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail. Ask Ron (ron@hallagan.net) or Gina (gmasterson99@gmail.com) for details. Why? "I was in prison and you visited me." – Matt 25:36 RSVP Request: We discussed tonight that it would be helpful for several reasons if everyone RSVP as often as possible. Even if you can’t attend and only plan to read the Recaps, go ahead and RSVP! Bible Study Format: 5 min prayer, 15 min Catholic topic, 40 min main topic from the weeks listed below Week 1: July 5 – Gospel Week: Stop judging? (Mt7:1-5); Left behind? (Mt: 24:37-41); The Meaning of 70 (Luke 10:1-12,16-20) Week 2: July 12 – Bible Timeline Week (Gen to Rev): The Story of Joseph – Gen 37, 39-42 Week 3: July 19 – Survey Topic of Choice: Purgatory III Final à Heaven I
Ö 1) Jesus’ Great Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Why is there suffering? 6) World Religions 7) Book of Revelation 8) Major Councils/Crusades/Inquisitions
Week 4: July 26 – Open Mic: Pending questions: what is grace? What is justice?
Upcoming Catholic Holy Days
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mon, August 15
Opening Prayer
O Lord
We meet tonight because you gave us two gifts to know you: faith and reason.
By studying your Word here together, we put these two gifts together
In order to enrich our knowledge of you and our relationship with You.
Please guide us tonight to a better understanding of the life of Joseph and his place in salvation history.
Also, Lord, please bless everyone here and all our members.
Bless our lives, bless our health, bless our work, bless our families and our friends.
We also ask for your comfort and assistance be sent to all those who are suffering in our world today
Especially those who are undeserving and seeking to help others around them.
As you taught us to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Bible Timeline Week
Genesis 34-39
Gen 34 – The rape of Dinah
Gen 35 – Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies
Gen 36 – Esau’s descendants
Gen 37 – Joseph sold into Egypt
Gen 39 – Joseph tempted by master’s wife, goes to prison
Gen 40-41 – Joseph Dreams Again, becomes P.Minister
Gen 42-44 – Joseph’s Brothers come to Egypt
Gen 45 – The Truth Revealed
Gen 46-50 – Israel Migrates to Egypt, Jacob dies.
Book of Exodus – 2nd book of the Penteteuch/Torah
Birthrights and Blessings
We often see “blessings” being given from father to eldest son: Noah to Shem, Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac’s is stolen by Jacob. Actually, Esau and Jacob were twins, but Esau came out first so he would normally have gotten the father’s blessing.
Q: So, how did this ancient custom work, particularly with regards to the first-born’s “birthright” and blessing?
Ancient inheritance laws gave special rights to the firstborn son. On the father’s death, his firstborn son received a double portion of the inheritance and took over as head of the family, acting as both “priest” and “king” for the extended family circle. As head, he had authority over other family members and also took responsibility for younger brothers and unmarried sisters. These rights and responsibilities were sacrosanct.
This “birthright” could be sold or shifted to another, but only by the first-born son’s consent or at the father’s direction. This “birthright” generally came also with a blessing.
In our story of salvation history, this “blessing” carried with it the covenant promises of God-Yahweh.
Genesis 34-49
Q: Quick review: who recalls where left off with Jacob last month?
During Jacob’s time in Haran working under Laban, he increased the livestock/wealth of Laban and his own holdings. Finally, after 20 years of being hoodwinked by Laban, he finally departs with his wives, children, and extensive livestock without informing Laban. Laban finds out and goes after him. He catches up with him in Gilead, but God appears to Laban in a dream and warns him. Laban and Jacob make a covenant together, and Laban leaves. In Peneul, Jacob wrestles with an Angel all night and his name is changed to Israel. Then Jacob nervously heads off to meet up with Essau, the older brother he betrayed. Jacob is shocked when Esau welcomes him back like a long lost best friend. Jacob then travels to Sechem to settle with his family while Esau returns to Seir/Edom (note: the Edomites become the decendents of Esau).
Context of Genesis 34…
This chapter, informally entitled “Rape of Dinah,” takes place soon after Jacob’s family has settled in Shechem. Dinah is the daughter of Jacob and Leah, Jacob’s first wife. Dinah is about to meet their new neighbors.
Gen 34: The Rape of Dinah
One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went out to visit the women who lived in the land.
But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw Dinah, he seized her and lay with her by force.
He was strongly attracted to Dinah and he fell in love with the young woman. So he spoke affectionately to her.
Shechem said to his father Hamor, “You must get this young woman for my wife.”
Soon Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter, Dinah. Hamor, Shechem’s father, came to speak with Jacob.
Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the field as soon as they heard what happened. They were shocked and furious that their sister had been raped.
Hamor tried to speak with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for her. Please give her to him to be his wife. Intermarry with us. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give whatever you ask.”
Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully to Shechem and his father Hamor because of what Shechem had done. They said, “We are not able to do this thing: to give our sister to an uncircumcised man. For that would be a disgrace for us. But on this one condition will we agree with you – that you become like us by having every man among you circumcised. Then we will intermarry and settle among you and become one people.”
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city:
“These men are friendly toward us. Let them live in our land and trade in it; there is ample room for them. And all their property and livestock will be joined to ours. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. But only on this condition: that every male among us be circumcised as they themselves are.”
So all the men who went to the gate of the city agreed with Hamor, and every male in the city was circumcised.
On the third day, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, each took his sword, advanced against the city without opposition and slaughtered all the males. After they killed Hamor and his son Shechem, they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.
Then the other sons of Jacob arrived. Finding the men slaughtered, they looted the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks of sheep, cattle and donkeys, and whatever else they could take in the city and in the surrounding country. They carried off all their wealth, their children, and their women, and took whatever was in the houses.
When Jacob learns of this, he said to Simeon and Levi: “You have brought trouble upon us by making us a stench to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are so few that if these people unite against us, our household will be wiped out.”
But they retorted, “Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?”
Exegesis
This is a tough story to evaluate. A horrible deed had been committed against Dinah, a nuclear response is then perpetrated by the brothers on the neighboring clan, and Jacob’s response seems primarily concerned for their safety more than for Dinah. Sigh!
As for Jacob, some say he may have been thinking that he had already screwed up before, and that this time God might abandon him. Of course, God doesn’t abandon anyone; however, when injustices or betrayals continue unabated, and people don’t listen to His warnings, God will lift his protection and allow people to experience the justice they themselves wrought.
Q: What about the brothers? Do you think they are justified? Did their response satisfy the old proverb “an eye for an eye”?
Their outrage at what happened to Dinah is certainly justified. Who could disagree?
“An eye for an eye” was meant to limit a person’s response to damage committed against him to a commensurate response, rather than a response totally out of control or proportion. If someone stole another man’s donkey, an “eye for an eye” would mean the thief should get a replacement for the donkey plus some money for the lost time and inconvenience. It does not mean they should get to massacre the thief’s family. Eye for an Eye means justice on both sides roughly equaling out, from an objective point of view.
Guilt and justice also take into account things like honesty, intent, remorse, etc. We might then consider that the brothers lied in their agreement with these people – but then it seems they had every intention of murdering them.
Nor did the brothers stop there. They sacked the city and carried off all their women, children, wealth, and livestock.
We will find out in Chapter 37 that these same brothers will sell their own brother, Joseph, into slavery.
Are we dealing with honorable brothers? Perhaps this weighed on Jacob’s mind as much as anything.
Humans are complicated and humans are fallen. The Bible is full of its share of bad actors – Joseph’s brothers among them. Nevertheless, God continues to work with fallen human beings to bring about our salvation. In this case, he will continue to work through Joseph.
Genesis 35
God instructs Jacob to move to Bethel. Rachael gives birth to Jacob’s 12th son, Benjamin, but she dies during the birth. Jacob (Israel) buries her in a place that will later be called “Bethlehem,” the future birthplace of King David and Jesus the Messiah.
Genesis 36
Esau’s descendants are listed. Esau is the father of the Edomites.
Genesis 37
Some 15 years have passed since they arrived back in Canaan from Haran. Joseph, the 11th son, is now 17 years old and Jacob’s favorite son. Jacob dotes on him and the brothers notice it. Joseph is a dreamer, and so their dislike for him only grows worse after he tells them about a dream he had where all his brothers will one day bow down to him. The brothers despise him and treat him accordingly.
One day after the brothers had taken the flocks to pasture in Shechem and were gone a long time, Jacob sends Joseph to check on them. When Joseph arrives in Shechem, they are not there. He learns that they had gone to Dothan so he travels there next.
The brothers see Joseph coming from a ways off, and they discuss killing him. Reuben strongly objects so rather than kill him they throw him into a dried-up cistern (Reuben intended to save him later). When a passing caravan of Ishmaelites happens by on their way to Egypt, Judah convinces the others to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and that way their hands are “clean” of his blood. Reuben isn’t with them at this time, but when he returns later and finds the cistern empty, he “tears his garments.”
The bothers had kept Joseph’s colorful tunic and smeared it with blood. When they return home, they give the bloody tunic to Jacob and tell him a wild animal attacked Joseph and ate him. Jacob is so full of grief he puts on sackcloth and inconsolably informs everyone that he will be mourning the loss of Joseph for the rest of his life.
When the Ishmaelites arrived in Egypt, they sell Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
Q: Why would Jacob give an expensive tunic just to Joseph?
The coat, or tunic, that Jacob gave to Joseph is expensive. Some interpretations describe it with “many colors,” and others only say a “decorated tunic.” Still others describe it as a priestly tunic. Whatever it was, it seemed to imply that Joseph was being set apart; it probably also means he was going to be Jacob’s designated heir, usually reserved for the first-born.
We can see another indication of Joseph’s different treatment by the fact that he wasn’t with his brothers when they took the flocks to pasture. Rather, Jacob sends Joseph to check on them, which means Jacob likely had Joseph doing other things – one of them being to check on his brothers – like he’s their overseer. No doubt the brothers loved that as well.
Q: What explanation might there be for why Jacob had such affection for Joseph, his eleventh son.
Joseph was the first son borne to Jacob by Rachel, the women he fell in love with when he first arrived in Haran.
The mothers of Jacob’s twelve sons
Q: There are two brothers in this story whose later offspring, or tribes, will be instrumental in the founding of Israel 500 years later and the breakup of the kingdom 200 years after that. Can you guess who they are?
Judah, whose tribal land will include Jerusalem, and who will become the Southern Kingdom of Judah when the kingdom splits in two after King Solomon’s son rises to the throne.
Joseph, whose son Ephraim will become the leader of the tribe of Ephraim. It will be a prince of the tribe of Ephraim who will lead the rebellion against King Solomon’s son in 930 BC, resulting in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Genesis 39
Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife
If you recall, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. Potiphar put Joseph to work and was surprised to have such a wise and productive servant.
“The Lord was with Joseph and he became successful … and everything he did prospered in his hands.”
Potiphar became so pleased with Joseph that he made him the overseer of his estate – and Potiphar prospered accordingly.
In time, joseph had grown into a handsome man, and after a time his master’s wife had eyes for him. Several times she told him to lie with her, but Joseph refused, explaining that the Master had entrusted everything to him and he could not possibly betray him.
She was not having any of it, and eventually became angry and offended. One day, she grabbed Joseph, but Joseph pulled away and ran off, although his cloak remained in her hands. She screamed for help and when the servants came, she claimed that Joseph had tried to rape her, but he ran away when she screamed for help.
When Potiphar returned to his household and learned of the incident, he was inflamed with anger and had Joseph thrown into prison.
I suppose when you are the captain of the guards, you can do that.
“But the Lord was with Joseph and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” – Gen 39:21
After a while, the keeper of the prison liked Joseph so much he let him run all the affairs of the prison.
Closing Prayer
Thanks be to thee
My Lord Jesus Christ for all the benefits thou hast given me for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother may I know thee more clearly love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly
day by day.
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
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