Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study House notes/rules… 1. The Zoom Meeting Logon information is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. The notes/recaps from our meetings are posted on our Catholic Catacombs Light website https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/blog, usually within a day. 3. See The Chosen. Knowing Jesus Christ means being able to better relate to God. Check it out: The Chosen at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 4. Respectfulness. Of course we will discuss differences between religions and even between Christian denominations, but we agree to use respectful words and tones in doing so. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ (I myself owe part of my return to the faith to them). 5. 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 – what it means and especially its origins in Scripture and Jesus Christ – and helping people develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ in their daily lives. 6. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can email the group via Meetup, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. Bible Study Format Week 1: Jan 4 – Gospel Week: Week 2: Jan 11 – Bible Timeline (Ascension Press): Gen to Rev. Next: Abraham fights the 4 Kings and meets Melchisedech (Gen 14-15) Week 3: Dec 21 – Topic of Choice – Hell (Jan18) The Bible Timeline (Ascension Press): Next: The Call of Abraham (Gen 11-13) JH
Bible Topics Survey Results Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Why is there suffering in the world 6) Compare World Religions 7) Revelations
Week 4: Dec 28 – OFF FOR HOLIDAYS (Open Mic – Faith issues at work or home? Catholic teaching questions? You pick the topics.)
Tonight
Bible Narrative Exegesis from Genesis to Revelations: The Call of Abraham (Gen 12)
Upcoming Jewish Holy Days:
Purim (March 16-17) 14th of the month of Adar.
Hebrew months: 1-Tishrei, 2-Marcheshvan, 3-Kislev, 4-Tevet, 5-Shevat, (AA), 6-Adar, 7-Nisan, 8-Iyar, 9-Sivan, 10-Tammuz, 11-Av, 12-Elul
Tishrei (mid-Sept) is the Hebrew New Year; 15th of Nisan is Passover.
Lunar Year: 12 lunar months (12x30=360 days), so a 13th month is added every 3 years or so, called Adar Aleph.
Upcoming Catholic Holy Days
We are now in the Advent Season, which runs from the 4th Sunday before Christmas to the Christmas Vigil.
Themes of Advent: John the Baptist
Stories/readings often recall John the Baptist, the one who would herald the coming of the Messiah; the bridge between OT-- NT.
Q: What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement?
“I tell you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; yet he who is the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Luke 7:28
Jesus ushers in a new creation undoing the Fall of Man. Heaven is thereafter open to humans. Therefore, the greatest before this time does not compare to the least after this time, because the latter gains heaven. This is not a statement about John the Baptist but rather a statement about glory of the Kingdom.
Q: What does Jesus mean by “among those born of women”?
Born of woman vs born again of Jesus Christ and the HS.
Themes of Advent: Mary as the Ark of the Covenant
Q: In addition to the New Eve, why is Mary seen as the true Ark of the Covenant?
1. “And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life…” – 1 Samuel 1:11. Hannah, Samuel’s aging mother, pleading with the Lord before she conceived Samuel.
Tradition has it that Mary’s mother prayed these words of Hannah. She conceived Mary and, just as Hannah did, dedicated her to the Temple. Mary spent her life at the Temple until she was forced to leave at the age of 14, when she was bequeathed to Joseph.
2. David: “How can the Ark of the LORD come to me?” - 2 Samuel 6:9. David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem after conquering the Philistines who had stolen it. Upon seeing Mary, Elizabeth calls out,
“How is it that the Mother of the Lord should come to me?” Now replace Mother with Ark.
3. “And … King David leaping and dancing before the LORD…” …in front of the Ark heading into Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 6:16
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb…” Note that David went before the Lord. John the Baptist was also to “go before the Lord.”
4. The Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments (word of God), the bread of the presence, and the staff of Aaron representing the authority of God.
Mary contained Jesus, who was the true Word of God, the true Bread of the Presence, and the true authority of God.
5. Remember: What is hidden in the Old Testament is revealed in the New.
Just as the Passover prefigured the Last Supper and Resurrection, the Ark of the Covenant built by Moses in the desert 1300 years earlier prefigured the true Ark of the Covenant to come.
Moses’ Ark contained the Old Covenant (Promise/Agreement) between God and the Jews. Jesus was the New Covenant.
6. Mary carried Jesus. She was the true Ark of the Covenant.
Q: Last Advent question of this Advent season: What does Holy Communion have to do with Advent? Jesus came to us 2000 years ago to re-open the gates of heaven. Jesus will come to us again at the final judgement at the end of time. Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion now, in the present, as often as we come to him. In this way, he is connecting His First Coming to His Second Coming through us in the present. All are part of the timeless Body of Christ.
Context:
We have traversed thousands of years and we are only entering Chapter 12!
Genesis 12 arrives many generations after Noah and the Tower, around the year 2,000 BC in Mesopotamia. It is the beginning of the age of Patriarchs, and we begin with the Call of Abram, which was his name originally. Abram actually translates as “exalted father,” which is no doubt painful to Abram because he and his wife, Sarah (Sarai), have been childless! Later, God changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of multitudes.”
Abraham is considered by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims to be our father in faith. Once again, God will re-establish a covenant with Abraham in an effort to call his children (the Jews initially, the human race ultimately) back to Himself.
Q: What is a covenant?
From the Latin convenire: venire (to come) + con (with/together) = to agree. A covenant is a promise or solemn agreement. In the OT a covenant was considered unbreakable, by threat of death. When a covenant involves God, it is truly unbreakable from God’s side. Man breaks them all the time, but then the scales of justice begin to fall upon their heads. We will see this throughout OT salvation history.
A covenant implied a kinship – between families, between tribes, between nations.
We will see the use of a heifer in executing a covenant. The heifer is cut in two lengthwise and the principle person responsible from each side would walk up the middle between the two halves of the bull.
Q: What did this signify?
It signified that if either of them broke the covenant, they acknowledged that what happened to the bull would happen to them.
Q: What custom do we have today that hearkens back to this ancient custom?
The marriage ceremony, walking up the center aile, with each family on either side.
At the end of a long list of descendants since Noah in Genesis 11, we read (8th generation of/after Shem):
These are the descendants of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot. Haran died before Terah his father, in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached Haran, they settled there.
Genesis, Chapter 12: Abram’s Call and Migration
The LORD said to Abram: Leave your land, your kindred, and your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.
Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, The LORD appeared to Abram and said: To your descendants I will give this land.
So Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
Q: What do we know about the name Canaan?
He was Shem’s son, Noah’s grandson, and became the next line of bad people. Canaan became the land of human and child sacrifice.
Q: What was special about the land Canaan?
It was in the Fertile Crescent, the “Basket of Civilization.” One reason God chooses Canaan for his chosen people because they are to the light to the nations. Canaan is the main trade route between Egypt and Asia. Everyone must pass through Canaan. Some say another reason was that God wanted to eradicate/replace the evil that was occurring in Canaan.
Q: God promises 3 things to Abram in V1-2. What are they and what do they mean?
Promise Meaning
1) Land promise à made again in Gen 15:13-16 (after 400 years of slavery) à fulfilled in Exodus 24 via Moses
2) A great name/great nation from you – implies not only offspring but a kingdom à King David/Davidic Covenant
3) A blessing to all nations = God will come to all mankind through Abraham à The promised Messiah/Christ
In essence, this three-part promise will give Abram’s descendants land, a kingdom in the land, and to make them a source of future world-wide blessing.
As part of this, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham in Gen 17:3-5:
“God said to him: here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations.”
Abraham and faith. Most of us of have the impression that Abraham was pure faith from the get-go. Yet, this is not always the case. In fact, he has already committed an error in V4.
Q: In verse 1, the Lord tells Abram to leave his land and relatives to go to a land he will show him. Is that what Abram does? See V5.
No, he takes Lot with him. Why would he do this?
Theologians agree with the Midrash (ancient Jewish commentary) that Lot was an “insurance policy” in case Abraham didn’t have children after all. After all, he was 75 years old (and Sarah was 65).
Lot will bring Abraham lots of problems.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe.
When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “Look, I know you are a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife’; then they will kill me, but let you live.
Please say, therefore, that you are my sister,* so that I may fare well on your account and my life may be spared for your sake.”
When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
When Pharaoh’s officials saw her they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
Abram fared well on her account, and he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female servants, male and female donkeys, and camels.
But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
Then Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him: “How could you do this to me! Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”
Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
Chapter 13 Abram and Lot Part Ways (next)
Closing Prayer
O Divine Wisdom and eternal Word of the Father,
I humbly ask you, by your grace,
to purge all harmful and unprofitable words from my mind and lips,
so that my mouth may never open
but to the benefit of others, and to your praise and honor.
And in honor of Mary, let us ask her to pray for us!
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
And blessed is the fruit if 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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