Bible Study Terms: Introduction to Our Father’s Plan by Claude Sasso, Ph.D
Deposit of Faith--The body of saving truth entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and handed on by them to be preserved and proclaimed. The metaphor of a “deposit” suggests that this teaching is an inexhaustible treasure, that rewards reflection and study with new insights and deeper penetration into the mystery of the divine economy of salvation. Although our understanding of this teaching can develop, it can never be augmented in substance. In shorthand:
Deposit of Faith= Sacred Oral Tradition+Sacred Scriptures
Oral Tradition--Jesus commissioned the Apostles to "go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you" (Mt.28: 19-20). He promised that the Holy Spirit would "instruct you in everything and remind you of all that I have told you" (John 14:26). Just before his ascension into heaven Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mk 16:15). He commanded them to do precisely what He himself had done, namely, deliver the Word of God to the people by the living voice and granted them, through the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues. It was by the Apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which books should be included in the New Testament. St. Augustine endorses the same position when he says: "I should not believe the Gospel except on the authority of the Catholic Church" (Con. epist. Manichaei, fundam., n. 6).
Bible--The Bible consists of the Old and New Testaments. The Church and the faith existed before the New Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit and many thousands/millions were converted before the Bible canon (73 books) was agreed upon. In fact, most people could not read in ancient times and only wealthy families could afford to purchase the papyrus on which they wrote. The New Testament was created by the Church, not the reverse as is sometimes maintained. The 27 books that would go into the New Testament, the canon, were not decided upon until the Council of Carthage in 397. Jesus died about 33 A.D., but none of the Books were written before about 45 A.D. and only 3 of 12 Apostles were among the human writers. The Bible is the inerrant word of God, but it is not a systematic presentation of all that we as Catholics believe. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity and especially the understanding of who the Holy Spirit was and how Christ united His divinity and humanity were the subject of controversies/heresies and Church Councils for the first 400 years of Church history. The Nicene Creed, which is accepted by Protestants and Catholics alike, was produced by a Council of Bishops at Nicaea in 325 A.D. as a response to the Arian heresy. It was the Church which defined these doctrines and excommunicated heretics. Consider how amazing it is that the Catholic Church has lasted over 2000 years despite great heresies like Arianism, which was favored by a Roman Emperor and many bishops and nearly won the day in the 300's. Ariane were principally concerned with preserving the oneness of God from pagan polytheism. They were trained theologians and argued from Scripture using easily mis-understood verses such as "The Father is greater that I" (Jn 14:28), and thus came to the heretical conclusion that Jesus was not God, but rather a created superior being. The Marcionites threw out the gospels and said only the letters of St. Paul were a part of Scripture and they were, in fact, the reason a Council of the Church bishops was called to put together the Canon of the New Testament in the 390's.
Not one manuscript of Holy Scripture written on papyrus exists today! The persecutors of the Church during the first 300 years of the Church destroyed everything they could get their hands on, including, no doubt, some writings of the Apostles (Paul mentions letters, for example, we do not have). The Church was satisfied with mere copies because the bishops of the Church (referred to as elders in Scripture except in 1 Tim 3 & Titus 1:7) could teach not only all that could be found in Scripture, but the true meaning of it. There are about 200,000 variations in the text of the Bible in existing manuscripts (according to Henry G. Graham's book, Where We Got the Bible) and even today men of good conscience, including the best scholars disagree on the meaning of many of these verses on basics from Baptism to the Eucharist to how we are saved and that is why our Lord gave us the Magisterium.
Magisterium--The Church is the "pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Tim 3:15). Jesus did not leave the Church He created without the means to understand the gospel. Like the Ethiopian eunuch we might ask of the Scripture, "How can I understand unless someone guides me?" (Acts 8:31). Even Scripture testifies to how difficult it can be to understand (2 Peter 3:15-16). A Church, which Scripture calls "holy" and "glorious" with the power to "bind and to loose" both on earth and in heaven can interpret the Holy Scriptures! [The idea that every believer's interpretation was as good as another began with an Augustinian monk's rebellion against the Church-- Martin Luther. He threw four books out of the New Testament which did not agree with his theology, but Protestants have put all four back in!] Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Humani Generis declares that “Holy Scripture is to be explained according to the mind of the Church which Christ has appointed guardian and interpreter of the whole deposit of revealed truth.” The Catechism says the task of the Magisterium is “to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. . . . To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals.”
Septuagint--The Jewish rabbis in the 2d century A.D. (practicing a new form of Judaism without animal sacrifice or a temple) removed seven books from the Hebrew Old Testament canon (1-2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch and parts of Daniel and Esther) which, however, were a part of the Greek Old Testament produced at the great library of Alexandria by the 72 of the best Jewish scholars about 100 B.C. This was known as the Septuagint and was used by the inspired writers of the New Testament for their Old Testament quotations! It actually remained in Protestant Bibles as the "Apocrypha" until 1827 and is, of course, still in the Catholic Bible. The Books removed by Luther in 1534 included 1-2 Maccabees. Why? One big reason, no doubt, is 2 Mac 12:42-45 which gives evidence for the Catholic doctrine of purgatory.
Typology--St. Augustine said that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. This means that we can find Christ in the Old Testament and that without an understanding of the Old Testament, there is no true understanding of the New Testament! Typology is the study of types, which finds types of Christ in the Old Testament and types of the New Covenant prefigured in the Old. Thus, it is said that Jesus is the Second Adam, or Moses and Elijah the Prophets prefigure Christ. The Old Testament sacraments, such as circumcision and the manna in the desert prefigure the New Testament sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. The crossing of the Red Sea, the water from the side of Christ and the baptism of John all prefigure the sacrament of Baptism. This is typology, when the places, persons or events of the Old Testament are types of what is to come in God’s plan for us. The most obvious type is perhaps that of Abraham’s sacrifice of his “only son”, which prefigures the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God, namely Jesus’ death on the Cross. The employment of a typological reading of Scripture implies that the “real” meaning of earlier events or persons is to be found in the consummation of these in later events and persons to which they point. This puts Jesus Christ at the center of all our Scripture reading and this same pattern is reflected in the organization of the lectionary (the readings used at Mass) and in the pattern of our liturgy. Our faith is Christocentric!
Deuterocanonical-- “Deuterocanonical, therefore, are those books concerning the
inspiration of which some Churches doubted more or less seriously for a time, but which were accepted by the whole Church as really inspired, after the question had been thoroughly investigated. As to the Old Testament, the Books of Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, I, II, Machabees, and also Esther, x, 4- xvi, 24, Daniel, iii, 24-90, xiii, 1-xiv, 42, are in this sense deuterocanonical; the same must be said of the following New- Testament books and portions: Hebrews, James, II Peter, II, III John, Jude, Apocalypse, Mark, xiii, 9-20, Luke, xxii, 43-44, John, vii, 53-viii, 11. Protestant writers often call the deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament the Apocrypha.” --Catholic Encyclopedia
Witness of the Early Church Fathers--“St. Irenaeus insists upon these points against the Gnostics, who appealed to Scripture as to private historical documents. He excludes this Gnostic view, first by insisting on the mission of the Apostles and upon the succession in the Apostolate, especially as seen in the Church of Rome (Haer., III, 3-4); secondly, by showing that the preaching of the Apostles continued by their successors contains a supernatural guarantee of infallibility through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost (Haer., III, 24); thirdly, by combining the Apostolic succession and the supernatural guarantee of the Holy Ghost (Haer., IV, 26). It seems plain that, if Scripture cannot be regarded as a private historical document on account of the official mission of the Apostles, on account of the official succession in the Apostolate of their successors, on account of the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised to the Apostles and their successors, the promulgation of Scripture, the preservation of its integrity and identity, and the explanation of its meaning must belong to the Apostles and their legitimate successors. The same principles are advocated by the great Alexandrian doctor, Origen (De princ., Praef.). "That alone", he says, "is to be believed to be the truth which in nothing differs from the ecclesiastical and Apostolical tradition".
Our Father’s Plan: Program Summary 1 : Divine Sonship
1)What does it mean when we say that God was a “Father” from all eternity? Scott says God as Father is an essential foundation for our faith. Let’s look at the following passages from Scripture: Eph 1: 3-14; 2 Jn 3; 1 Pet 1:2; Jn 6:27.
2)Pope Pius the XII said “the Christian religion is the religion of divine sonship.” What did he mean? What is divine sonship? Who was the first to recognize the Messiah’s divine sonship? Peter confessed Jesus as the “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and Jesus responded solemnly, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:16-17) “The essence of sin (Scott says) is the refusal of divine sonship.”
3)Jesus said, “ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” What is righteousness? It is not merely obedience, though obedience is essential (see John 3:5); it is trusting the Father as the Son did. The love and trust of a son is what faith is all about. St. Paul writes in Romans 3: 21-25:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
4)We are sinners than who were elevated to the gift of divine sonship making God, not just our Creator, but our “Father, who art in heaven.” Scripture says we are made a new creation in Him. The Catechism says, “The most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace [the gift of divine sonship], the grace of justification [to be made right with God]: enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him . . . giving the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. . .” [para 1266 CCC].
5)St. Paul also says of sinful men in Romans 1:22-29:
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. 29 They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice.
Thus St. Thomas Aquinas concluded that the punishment for sin is addiction to it. But keeping the commandments is the prescription for spiritual fitness and strong family bonds.
Summary Points From Program 2
1)One of the points discussed is where the wives of Cain and Abel came from. Because the Church does not tell us, but does tell us that we are to believe that Adam and Eve were our first parents, we are free to believe that which is not contradictory to Church teaching. It teaches that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God--it is not ‘produced’ by the parents--and also that it is immortal. My friend Keith, suggested that the wives of Cain and Abel were other children of Adam and Eve, which is possible. I believe that a better explanation would be that they came from the same place that Eve did! That is, they were created by God from a rib! If God could do it for Adam, why not for his children?
2)We pointed out that the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that “Adam and Eve were constituted in an original ‘state of holiness and justice,’ which was “to share in. . .divine life” (See para 375, CCC). In this state of divine intimacy, man would not die or suffer. Para 376 states, “The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony of the man and woman, and finally the harmony between the first couple and all of creation, comprised the state of ‘original justice.’
3)Para 379 points out, that “This entire harmony of original justice, foreseen for man in God’s plan, will be lost by the sin of our first parents.” Para 385 notes that “God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures; and to the question of moral evil . . . The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.”
4)Para 386 notes, “To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relationship of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavily on human life and history.” Para 387 explains, “Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.”
5)As a result of the sin of our first parents, St. Paul tells us in Rom 5: 12, that death makes its entrance into human history--both spiritual death and physical death. Para 401 notes, “After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated in sin. . . .Likewise sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses.” Likewise, we suffer from “an inclination to evil that is called ‘concupiscence.’ Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.” (See para 404 & 405). Finally, para 407 notes, “By our first parents’ sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free.”
6)But God did not abandon man, but soon announced his plan in the Proto-Evangelium, in which Mary and her son Jesus will crush the head of Satan (para 411).
Summary Points from Program III
1)Dr. Hahn explained the significance of God’s resting on the seventh day of the creation cycle for the world by pointing out that “seven” in Hebrew is the same word used for “swearing an oath.” Thus, suggesting that the significance of the seventh day that God swore an oath (oaths are always present in covenants and are enforced by a holy God) to his creation establishing a covenant with it and making it his own sacred house. By virtue of the covenant relationship with our Father, we are not simply creatures anymore, but sons and daughters. God, who is initially referred to as “Elohim” becomes Yahweh-Elohim. Yahweh is God’s covenant name because we now share a covenant (read “family”) bond with our Father. Made in God’s image we are called to holiness and Adam and Eve image God in the marriage covenant, as they cleave to one another and become one flesh. But Adam, called to priestly service and holiness by the Father, fails the covenant trial by ordeal in the fall from grace, bringing about spiritual death for mankind (original sin). Still God had a plan, first noted in Genesis 3: 15 and marked by promises, covenants, prophecies and types (of Jesus) that we are beginning to study now. “God inspired Scripture to teach us something more profound than a simple moral.” Thus nature and history are visible signs of uncreated realities, which are eternal and invisible.
2)The sin of Adam and Eve has consequences. In regard to the woman, the St. Jerome commentary, notes, “ The punishment is threefold: Woman bears children in pain; her desire for her husband, despite its consequences, is controlled with difficulty; man dominates woman in the domestic and social order (see Gen 3:16 & Eph 5:21). Man’s domination, although part of the order of creation (cf. 2:21-23), is intensified by sin beyond the divinely willed measure.”
3)As regards the killing of Abel by Cain, due to his jealousy over Abel’s favor with God, the commentary notes, “ Man’s revolt against God leads to his revolt against his fellow man; the crime of murder confirms the fallen state of man; God is just in the punishment of sin, but merciful in its application (Gen 4: 15); sacrifice must be offered in the proper spirit; sin must be, and therefore can be, mastered by man (Gen 4: 7).”
4)As regards the long ages enjoyed by the first men (Adam lived 930 yrs.), the commentary notes, “The general decrease in ages probably indicates the further estrangement from God, since long life is attributed to “fear of the Lord” (cf. Prv 10:27).” Genesis 6: 3 makes it clear that part of God’s punishment for man’s sins of intermarriage between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men.” The “sons of God” are probably the descendants of the pious Seth who intermarried with descendants of the wicked Cain (“the daughters of men”). [Male prostitutes of Canaanite temples also claimed to be sons of God and females prostitutes at Qatabanian temples were called daughters of men. Some argue that sons of God refers to angels.] See also Jacob’s lament in Genesis 47: 9.
5)As regards Enoch being “taken,” it says, “ “God took [la:qah] him”; the expression is a technical one indicating a metahistorical event (cf. Elijah in 2 Kgs 2:3, 5, 9, 10, 16; the psalmist in Pss 49:16; 73:24). He was taken to heaven and did not know death and corruption? This seems to be the case because the Scripture says “he walked with God” (see Heb 11:5ff). Elijah was taken to heaven with chariots of fire (2 Kgs 2: 11).
6)In examining the upgrading of the Promises in Genesis 12 to Covenants in Genesis 15, 17 and 22, we see God doing this to shore up the faith of Abram when it seems to be failing. For example, in Genesis 15 Abram laments that because he is still childless his heir may turn out to be his servant, Eliezer. Yahweh reassures Abram by attaching a covenant oath to the promise concerning the land ( the covenant is symbolized by the Holy Spirit in the form of a flaming torch passing between the pieces of the animal sacrifice), swearing to deliver to his descendants the land from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
7)In Genesis 17 God adds an oath to the promise concerning a great name or dynasty, swearing that “Kings will come forth from your line” and changing Abram’s name to Abraham, which means father of a host of nations. This was marked by the covenant of circumcision, making circumcision the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham was doubting that he would ever have a son by his wife Sarai (he already had a son from her maid Hagar, namely Ishmael), but God changed her name to Sarah (appropriate to a queen mother) and said that she would give birth to a son, despite her age of ninety years, and he would produce rulers of nations from his issue.
8)In Genesis 22, Abraham was “put to the test” of his faith and demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, now thirteen years of age, as an offering to God, but the hand on the knife was stayed by an angel and God swore an oath to make his descendants as numberless as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore and to bless all the families of the earth through his seed. This worldwide blessing would come in the form of God’s own son, Jesus, who would be offered up on Calvary, which is on Mt. Moriah, the very same mountain to which God had led Abraham for the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham’s statement in response to Isaac’s question of where the sacrifice was seemed disingenuous, but turned out to be prophetic. He said, “Yahweh Jaera” or “God will provide.” He did when he sent his beloved only son to die on Mt. Moriah on a tree--the Lamb of God. In Him, God would restore the human family’s relationship to their Creator, which had been ruptured by the sin of Adam and Eve. The Father’s plan was accomplished through the covenants, which we have been studying, and which are best defined as family or kinship bonds between God and his people. The worldwide blessing comes through the Catholic, universal Body of Christ, the family of God, restoring all nations to that family as children of God (divine sonship), not just Israel. Jesus took on the curse of dying on a tree so that he might make disciples of all nations, blessing his worldwide family through Jesus.
Program IV Summary: Exodus Program IV Summary: Exodus
1)God’s initial request for Moses was to set up a three day religious revival, not free the people.
2)Moses did not think he was the one to represent “I am” in this matter because he stuttered and stammered, but Yahweh reminded him that Aaron could speak for him. They were 80 and 83 years old.
3)In Ex 4: 22 God says to tell Pharaoh that Israel is my first-born son. God is raising up Israel to be a priest to all the other nations!
4)Moses is a covenant breaker when he fails to circumcise his son, Gershom, on the 8th day (Gen 17 says God will cut off a man who refuses to circumcise on the 8th day) The Midianites, like the Arabs, did not circumcise until the 13th year. To save Moses from threatened death, his Midianite wife, Zipporah, circumcises their son and touches the blood of the child to Moses!
5)The ten plagues are designed to be educational: In the first plague the Nile R. is turned to blood. Why? Because it was being worshiped as a god! Likewise, the 2d plague of frogs is a judgment against the Egyptian god, Hecht (depicted as a frog) and the 5th plague on the livestock is a Judgment against the gods Apis and Hatha. Remember that Israel wanted three days to sacrifice cattle, sheep and goats outside of Egypt, for fear of the Egyptian reaction to sacrificing the symbols of their gods (see Ezk 20, where cattle, sheep and goats=gods). The 9th plague of darkness is a judgment against the Egyptian sun god, Ra.
6)Why kill the first-born sons? Pharaoh's first born son was considered, like himself, to be a god-Killing the first-born creates a power vacuum in Egyptian society which makes the Exodus possible. Exodus 12:12 notes, "For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first-born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt--I, the LORD!"
7)In Ex 16, the people grumble against the Lord and he gives them manna (what is this?) in the desert, the "bread from heaven-" [resinous secretion of tamarisk tree and certain desert shrubs, but miraculous 'in the amount provided]. John 6: 31 mentions it just before the bread of life discourse on the Eucharist and so does Jesus in the discourse itself. On the 6th day they gathered a double portion, so as to honor the sabbath (Ex 16: 29). In Ex 17, they are again grumbling vs. Moses, and they receive water from the rock (and the rock was Christ as St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 10:4.
8)In Exodus 19:5, "Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. . " Then God gives Moses the 10 commandments in Ex 20. When the people become afraid of the natural fireworks (thunder, lightning, smoking mountain, etc.) Moses assures them and tells them they are being tested by the Lord--the fear of Him is to impress upon you the faith that will remind you to avoid sin. He also asks that the people offer burnt offerings and peace offerings (which ended in a communion meal) in return for God’s blessings. It is worth noting that the punishment for striking or cursing a father or mother was death (Ex 21:15, 17). Why??
9)ln Ex 24, we see the family of God restored to grace as Moses and the seventy elders go up the mountain to sacrifice as he has been instructed (young bulls) then put half the blood on the altar and sprinkled the rest on the people and read the Book of the Covenant to the people. They said they would do everything the Lord had said. Then Moses sprinkled the blood on the people with the words, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his" (Ex 24:8). This blood was an expression of the communion bond between God and his people as is the Blood of Jesus in the New Covenant.
1)The setting for the first ten chapters of the Book of Numbers is Sinai, where Moses talked with Yahweh “face to face” in the Tent of Meeting, which housed the tabernacle, the ark of the Covenant, the ten commandments and the manna (see Ex 26; 36: 8-38). The Levites had to gather around it as a buffer between God and the people (layer of mediation). The twelve tribes surrounded the Tent with three on each side. Any layman who came near the Tent and the Tabernacle would be put to death (Num 3: 10). Only the Levites could assist the high priest, Aaron around the Tent of Meeting. As long as the cloud (Shekina) was over the tent (symbolizing the presence of God) they remained in camp, but when it rose, they would break camp and set out and in this way the bidding of the Lord was followed.
2)In Numbers 11-21 we see repeated instances of the people murmuring and grumbling against Moses and God. They grumble about a lack of meat (Num 11: 4); then refuse to attack Canaan (Num 14: 1-38) and in both cases they are punished and Moses’ prays on their behalf to obtain God’s mercy. They are told by God they will wander in the desert for forty years (isolated from the pagan nations) and die there, before their children will see the promised land (typology: heaven). When they complain about a lack of water at Meribah of Kadesh in the southern Negeb, Moses strikes the rock twice and out flows water. But Moses sinned in striking it a second time and will not live to see the promised land himself. Not even Moses is immune from sin. Paul tells us that the rock represents Christ’s presence among the people (1 Cor 10: 4). Still grumbling about a lack of food and water, they are visited by a plague of snakes and Moses again prays that the punishment be lifted and the Lord instructs him (Num 21: 8-9) to put a seraph on a pole and have the people look up to it to be healed from the snake bites (typology: Christ on the Cross).
3)Then Israel goes to the plains of Moab and commits an act of apostasy, involving idolatry and sexual immorality. This is the sin of Baal-Peor, thus the second generation fails the test, despite 40 years in the desert, and God deals with his rebellious sons by forming a covenant with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, who had avenged the Lord’s honor by despatching the sinners (this stopped the plague which had swept away 23,000 according to St. Paul in 1 Cor 10). The twelve tribes are thus permanently laicized.
4)The law of the priesthood, was given to the Levites in Leviticus, whereas in
Deuteronomy we see a concessionary law that allows for such things as divorce, concubinage, polygamy, slavery, usurious loans, harem (genocidal) warfare--a law that published for the twelve tribes in their non-priestly status. It came from Moses, not God, and tolerated lesser evils to avoid greater ones (see Mt. 12, where Jesus talks about divorce). This “second law” was a covenant with the people and its violations would place them under the curses triggered by violation of the covenant oath of the people. Why would God permit the ban? Deuteronomy 17 concedes secular kingship, constituting Israel as a dynastic kingdom because of their desire to be like the nations around them, but specifically prohibits them to multiply horses (chariots of war), wives or gold like the nations around them do. Sins trigger curses which will ultimately lead to the exile of the nation.
5)Deuteronomy is a self-retiring covenant that is written on stone, but the New Covenant promised as a “worldwide blessing” will be written upon hearts. St. Augustine explains that the Law was given, so that grace might be sought, because apart from grace, the Law cannot be kept. Remember that the Sinai covenant, the moral law of the ten commandments will not be dispensed with under the New Covenant, but the Deuteronomic laws were dispensed with for Christians by the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), which settled the Judaizer problem in the Church. Grace makes keeping the law (ten commandments) possible (not easy) and in Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation and the Eucharist, we have the sacramental grace necessary. This is the heart of the teaching of the Fathers of the Church.
1)The Israelites conquered by the sacred power of God, which was exercised through the Levite priesthood. Thus the Jordan River flow was stopped when the priests with the Ark of the Covenant stepped into it and Jericho fell after Joshua, followed the instructions of an angel who identified himself as “the captain of the host of the Lord.” The covenant is emphasized by the action at Jericho, which saw seven priests carrying ram horns ahead of the ark, march around the city seven times on the seventh day. The concept of “sevening oneself” is a way of swearing oneself to a covenant. God’s faithfulness cannot be surpassed.
2)The Mosaic covenant is ratified in Joshua 8: 30-35, after the Deuteronomic code (second law) was carved into stone and read aloud to all the people with their elders, officers and judges who were gathered for the ceremony on either side of the ark, facing the Levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant. Both the blessings and curses were read and the people shouted “amen” for each. Half the people faced Mt. Gerizim, while the other half faced Mt. Ebal as Moses had prescribed during the formal swearing.
3)After the land had been conquered and divided up among the tribes, Joshua, reaching the end of his days, asks the people to choose whom they intend to serve the false gods their fathers served in the desert and in Egypt or the Lord God. He recited the long sad history of disobedience and secret worship of idolatrous Canaanite gods and warned them that half-hearted repentance was dangerous. He said “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” They said they would too, but Joshua warned the people, “You may not be able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God and will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If, after the good he has done for you, you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, he will do evil to you and destroy you” (Jos 24: 19-20). The people promised in response that they would, “serve the Lord, our God, and obey his voice.” Joshua made a covenant with the people at Shechem that day and recorded it in the book of the law of God.
4)The Book of Judges tells the stories of Judges sent by God to rescue the people from sin cycle, which they repeatedly fall into (seven times in this book). Again, we see that the power is in the priesthood with Samson, whose power was granted because he had taken a Nazirite vow, which set him apart and opened him up to holiness. The priest is supposed to be a spiritual father, but when they become corrupt to the point of selling their office and taking a concubine. The corruption of the clergy is perhaps, Scott suggests, why the people are constantly falling into these cycles of sin, but the good news is that Yahweh never abandons them! God will work even with fallen men--God always has a plan for our good aimed at restoring us to a state of grace. The sins of the people are indeed horrible to behold as seen in the treatment of Levite’s concubine by the men of Gilbeah (Judges 19: 11-30). The Levite then cuts up the poor, violated concubine, with a mentality foreign to our own and one designed to enrage the Israelite nation, sends her corpse in twelve pieces out to the twelve tribes, to seek to avenge her brutalization and death by a war against the house of Benjamin who had abused her. Although Benjamin was defeated, it was a defeat that came only after the other unified tribes were themselves twice defeated by Benjamin’s inferior numbers, perhaps reflecting that they were not sinless themselves. They had to do penance before achieving the victory. The Book ends with the fourth repetition of the phrase, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best.” This indicates the lack of spiritual leadership and the people floundering about separated from their covenant vows and the holiness God wants each of us to attain.
1)The Davidic Covenant is the fulfillment of the Covenant made to Abraham concerning a dynastic house
(“. . . kings shall stem from you.” See Gen 17: 6). David is told that the Lord will “make him famous like the great ones of the earth” and that “give them rest from all your enemies.” Most important, David is heir “will make his kingdom firm. . .build a house for my name” and that “. . .house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” See 2 Sam 7: 10-17.
2)David and Solomon are priest-kings and adopted sons of the Father. David, in particular, is described as a “man after God’s own heart.” David as priest-king gives the people bread and wine. The key point here is that God wants David and his successors to create a holy kingdom that will bring all the nations back into God’s covenant family. What Adam is to every person, Israel is to every nation. Her story of sin and repentance is our own!
3)David’s great sin of arranging for Bathsheba’s husband to die in battle and coveting her for his own, was forgiven by God because David was truly repentant and did not try to evade or rationalize his guilt. But even though David was assured by Nathan that “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die” the punishment for that sin remained. See 2 Sam 12: 13-25. This is a powerful argument against those who say there is no punishment for sins once they are forgiven by God. It is a powerful argument against those who do not see a need for penance (the Bishops are now testing whether we should return to meatless Fridays!). It is a powerful argument for the existence of purgatory!
4)The covenant was partially fulfilled in David’s son, Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba. He used his wisdom well at first building the Temple in seven years and dedicating in the seventh month, but he allowed foreign pagan religions to be introduced through his many foreign wives and became more of a money hungry tyrant.
5)In 1 Kings 2: 19, Solomon bows down to the queen mother (Bathsheba) because she is the true queen, not Solomon’s 700 wives or 300 concubines. Her role was to make intercession for the people with her son. She is a type of Mary, who is alive in Christ and interceding for her spiritual children. This does not obscure or diminish the efforts of the one mediator, Christ, but rather “. . .shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men. . .flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it. No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer, but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to the manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source (Catechism of Catholic Church, para 970).
1)The Kingdom of Israel divided in the year 930 B.C. into two nations, namely, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Only the Kingdom of Judah remains loyal to Yahweh, although only 8 of its 20 kings were considered good. The northern kingdom is an apostate one, creating pagan altars at Dan and
Bethel, with no good kings. The northern kingdom, Israel, is overthrown and absorbed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., in accord with prophets who predicted its destruction. The sins of the kingdom of Judah eventually catch up with it as well and God’s chastisement is the Babylonian captivity, which begins in 586 B.C.
2)The divided kingdom began after the reign of King Solomon, who despite his wisdom and priesthood, went from good king and builder of the first temple to a version of the anti-Christ, having perverted the gifts God gave him, in an effort to accumulate money, wives and power.
3)The prophets of the Divided Kingdom period include Jonah, from the northern kingdom of Israel. He had the unhappy task of being the prophet of the Assyrians, who he gets to repent. He thus saves the people who will conquer and crush his own within 40 years. This points to the fact that God wants to save all men and that we will chastise even the chosen people when they stray too far from Him.
4)A prophet of Judah, Isaiah, uses the imagery of the Davidic empire and of the covenant to point us to the Messiah. In Isaiah 7:14, he says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” This shows how God preserves the Davidic dynasty even when it appears to be in ruins. Isaiah prophecy was partially fulfilled in King Hezekiah and completely fulfilled in Jesus.
5)In Acts 3: 23-36, Peter explains that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophets since the time of Samuel, including the suffering servant prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 52:13-53:12).
6)In Jer 23: 5-5, The prophet Jeremiah predicts a new David who will be called the “Lord our justice” and promises a new covenant: “The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jer 31:31).
7)Daniel, the great prophet of the Babylonian captivity, predicts the four kingdoms that will rule over his people (the four beasts coming out of the sea), namely, Egypt, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. After 70 years of exile, he begins fasting and making confession for the sins of the people because he is afraid the 70 years were not enough. The Archangel Gabriel, who will be the one to come to Mary 500+ years in the future, comes to Daniel to inform him that God will deliver the Jews, but not until they have experienced 70 weeks of years (i.e., 490 years) more of captivity. Then the Messiah will come, but Daniel also predicts that he will be cut off and thereafter the “people of the prince who is to come [i.e., the Romans] will come and destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [the rebuilt temple]. See Daniel 9: 22-27.
1)After 500 years Samaria looked upon Judah (which is only 25 miles long) as their own, so they were not happy with King Cyrus’ decision. Judaism was born with the return of the exiles after 70 years from Babylonian exile, however, the domination by foreign powers continued. Zerubabbel, a Davidic descendant, was the governor of post-exile Judah during the rebuilding of the temple authorized by Cyrus the Great (559-529 B.C.), who is referred to as the “anointed of God (see Isa. 45: 4-8). He was in the first return wave. Ezra the Scribe came in the second wave 80 years later and Nehemiah was in the third wave 13 years later.
2)Although Judah was without a king for 500 years, our Father's plan continued "in silence." God is speaking softer, but more profoundly. Holy sacrifice is the focal point of their lives in a society under covenant with God. Because they were called to a higher degree of holiness, Ezra, who traced his priesthood back to Moses’ brother Aaron, restored the Torah and made it their constitution and launched a marriage reform, requiring the expelling of all foreign wives (in accordance with their law). This was accomplished for the purpose of ritual, not ethnic purity. The Bible also include the stories of Jonah and Ruth to remind the Jews that they are not morally superior. They are being prepared by God to become more Christ like.
3)When the second temple was complete, they crowned Jeshua, the high priest,. not Zerubbabel as some amended accounts indicate since he had apparently been recalled to Persia. This underlines the fact that true power is in the priesthood and God wants to create a kingdom of priests who will bring all nations to him. God does not want animal sacrifice, but he does want his people to be willing to lay down their lives to bear witness to the truth of the faith, as he would lay down his life for us. The fiery furnace of persecution forges a Christ-like people because of redemptive suffering. In our suffering, God perfects our love. Heaven and heaven alone is our true home. "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."
4)In 2 Mac 7, we have the martyring of a mother and seven sons by the evil king Antiochus. The heroic deaths of the sons and finally mother are a testimony to covenant bond with Yahweh which gives us eternal life.
5)Nehemiah, the cupbearer for the Emperor Artaxerxes was sent to deal with the opposition to the reconstruction of the temple. He was a construction worker who sanctified his work on the construction of the walls of Jerusalem, which will protect the temple, by his prayer and his refusal to permit the Samaritans to have a part in the work. He ordered the wealthy to stop their economic abuse of the poor and used a lottery to resettle Jerusalem. See Neh 9:38-10:39 and 13:15-22 for how the Sabbath is treated. The second temple was completed about 515 B.C.
1)The primacy of Peter is underlined by the Bible, since Peter is mentioned three times more than the second most mentioned disciple, John, and is the acknowledged leader, always mentioned first when a listing of the Apostles is given. The Gospel of Matthew, probably the first one written, has been called the “Gospel of Peter.” Peter’s name had been Simon, but he is given a divine commission and a new name by Jesus in Matthew 16: 18-19, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” In Aramaic there is only one word for “rock” and that word is “Cephas.” Peter is the rock on which Jesus builds His Church.
2)The keys are symbolic of the royal authority of Christ the King and this is evident from a study of Isaiah 22: 20, since the prime minister of the king in Israel (and the Middle East in general) enjoyed the authority of the king and was even referred to as “father.” The Italian word for father is “pope.” Peter is the first prime minister of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Vicar of Christ. When he dies his office must be filled, just as Peter filled the episcopal office of Judas with Mathias (see Acts 1: 20ff).
3)As the Catechism notes, “In order to preserve the Church in the unity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a “supernatural sense of faith” the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium “unfailingly adheres to this faith” (Para. 889). “To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals” (para. 890). Drawing upon the Deposit of Faith, the saving truths entrusted to the apostles by the Holy Spirit and passed down to the Church, the pope, though a weak and fallible human, can not error in matters of faith and morals, when speaking ex cathedra. The Catechism also points out that “‘the body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor. . . “exercise the supreme Magisterium,’ above all in an Ecumenical Council”(para. 891).
4)After Jesus thrice asked Peter if he loved him and each time Peter responded that he did, Jesus commanded him to “feed [or tend] my sheep” (John 21: 15-19). Jesus, the Good Shepherd, promised that “there shall be one flock, one shepherd” and gave Peter authority over the flock under Jesus (see John 10: 16). When Jewish authorities engaged in persecution of Christians, Peter always spoke for the Church. He was the only apostle to raise a person from the dead (Acts 9: 36-42). He displayed startling authority again when he condemned the dishonesty of Ananias and Sapphira and both were struck dead by God. Why? Acts 5: 3 explains that they had lied “to the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Holy Spirit that Christ promised he would send (John 14: 26 and 15: 26), the same Holy Spirit Peter gave to Cornelius and his “whole family” when he baptized the first Gentile Christian and the same Holy Spirit who spoke through Peter when he defined Jesus for the rest saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16 and Mk 8: 29) and again defining Pentecost (Acts 2: 36-39). The Spirit reveals the mind of Christ even as Christ revealed the mind of his Father. This was the first dogma. The second was pronounced at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).
5)Peter said “. . .you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Pet 1: 20) and said of Paul’s epistles, “There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:16).
1)Before Jesus talks to Nicodemus about the necessity to “be born from above” or “be born again” he is allowing himself to be baptized by John the Baptist [though he did so only “to fulfill all righteousness” per Mt 3: 15] and then goes to Judea with his disciples baptizing others (John 3: 22). Baptism is a sacrament of Christian initiation, which Peter explains when he says to the crowds at Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2: 38-39). Baptism is connected with faith as Acts 16: 31-33 notes, showing Paul baptizing the jailer at Philippi “with all his family.” In Baptism we die with Christ [to our sins], so that we might live with Him (See Rom 6: 3-4; 2 Col: 12; 2 Tim 2: 11-12). The baptized “put on Christ” through the Holy Spirit (CCC, para 1227).
2)John does not narrate the initiation of the Eucharist at the Last Supper since the three earlier gospels already have done so, but he gives the vital Bread of Life discourse in John 6: 51-58, wherein Christ repeats four times that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” Jesus knows that this will be a stumbling block for many, since Levitical law clearly prohibits the eating of flesh or the drinking of blood (Lv 3: 17; 7: 26; 17:10-14; 19: 26). As a violation of Mosaic law and an apparent form of cannibalism, the penalty was to be cut off from your people. But since Adam and Eve left us a lethal legacy of spiritual death, sin and weakness [concuipiscence], we need to be cut off from the fallen race to be connected to Jesus, our Savior, the new Adam! Moreover, since Jesus is very much alive and an eternal priest (Heb 7: 24), it is not cannibalism. If Jesus was only using an idiomatic expression for “life” or his “word” it would have been a matter of importance that he clarify his meaning so as not to give scandal. Instead, upon hearing the murmurs of disbelief, Jesus explains, “. . . the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn 6: 63). Flesh alone is of no avail, but Christ’s resurrected, glorified flesh is because it is united to the everlasting source of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist is the most profound expression of God’s self-abasement and mercy for us. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was not even challenged until the 9th century (by Barengarius).
3)Christ is the Passover Lamb and like the lamb of the first Passover, he must be consumed if we are to be saved. We consume the sacrifice for communion with Him in obedience of his command to “do this in memory of me.” The word in Greek for memory is anamnesis, which means more that mere remembrance, but rather implies an actualizing or making present of thing being remembered (1 Cor 11: 23-26). How are we obedient? We keep the feast or as Paul says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” That is why St. Paul reminds us that the bread is a koinounia or “participation” in the body of Christ and the wine, in the blood of Christ. This is what brings us together in the body of Christ as Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10: 17). If you do not recognize Jesus, you bring judgment upon yourself. Again quoting Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”
4)When we receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist it is comparable to the Marriage supper of the Lamb presented in the Book of Revelation. The Covenant relationship we enter into with our reception is according to the Fathers of the Church, comparable to the one flesh union of a husband and wife.
1)Peter who Jesus declared the rock and to whom the keys to the kingdom were given, along with the power to bind and loose, exercises his authority in filling the bishopric/office of Judas with Mathias (Acts 1: 20f); he heals and teaches in the temple area and is put on trial, but reverses the tables on his accuser. The fisherman, turned Vicar of Christ, convicts his Pharisaic accusers of sacrificing the long awaited Messiah; he carries the authority of the Holy Spirit as is evident in the stories of Ananias and Sapphira, whose deaths are attributed to their having lied to the Holy Spirit (the Vicar of Christ has the Holy Spirit’s authority). His judgment with regard to Gentiles and the Judaizers is settled by his lead at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15).
2)The Jerusalem Council relieved Jews of the yoke of the Deuteronomic covenant and the Old Law, including the dietary restrictions, circumcision, animal sacrifices, etc. Most importantly, it welcomed Gentiles into the New Covenant Church without having to undergo circumcision or any of the Old Covenant practices, but it did not dispense with the ten commandments, which preceded the Deuteronomic covenant, and which are still binding on all believers.
3)Sola Scriptura (or Scripture alone) is a rallying cry of the Reformation as Protestants rejected the authority of the Church and of Tradition. That is, the Deposit of Faith (depositum fidei), which was handed down by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, had always consisted of oral Tradition and Scripture. Both “flow from the same divine well-spring” and both “move toward the same goal.” The Scriptures do not anywhere state that they are the sum total of God’s word and in fact, they state the opposite as St. Paul notes in 2 Thes 2:15, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” He never even hints that oral Tradition, which is all the early Church had along with the Old Testament before the writing down over a 40-50 year period of the New Testament, will one day be replaced by the written word. This would be at the very least impractical since the New Testament was not formally defined until the end of the 4th century and most Christians were not even literate until recent years. On the contrary, he refers to the Church as “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). As the Catechism notes, the “task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone” (Para 85). But it points out, “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. . .with the help of the Holy Spirit. . .” (Para 86). As Christ said to the Apostles, “He who hears you, hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lk 10:16).
4)Sola Fide is the other rallying cry of the 16th century Protestant Reformation, by the man who popularized it misinterpreted St. Paul. Luther’s insertion of the word “alone” after faith in Romans 3:28 changes the original text. Paul rejects “works of the law” as having capability to save, but “works of the law” refers to the Deuteronomic practices which the Apostles disposed of at the Jerusalem Council (e.g., circumcision), not to “good works” which St. James urges us to accomplish (See James 2:14-26). Faith must be accompanied by good deeds (Heb 13:16-17) because as the old saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions (See Rev 2:10 and 22:12; Rom 2:5-8). My faith and my works are both Christ’s work in any case! He is the sovereign cause by his grace we attain faith and by his grace we can do good works. We are saved by “faith working through love” (Gal 5:7).
Program XIII Summary: Hebrews and Revelation
1) Priesthood was originally vested in the patriarchs or fathers, who passed it on to their first-born sons and God made clear to Moses that He wanted Israel to be a “holy nation, a kingdom of priests” (Ex.19:6), but after the sins of worshiping the golden calf, the priesthood was given only to the Levites, who had slaughtered the idolators at Moses’ command. Jesus came not only as King, but as Mediator (an ideal one because humanity and divinity were joined in His person) and as High Priest. Christ’s priesthood is eternal after the order of Melchizedek. His new Covenant priesthood is guaranteed by divine oath, in the form of the Davidic Covenant.
2) The basis for saying that the New Covenant is superior to the old is the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, whereas the Old Covenant was mediated by angels, who the Jews believed had a form of divine sonship. The Old is a type of the New, but only a foretaste of what is to come. Melchizedek, who blessed Abraham and brought out gifts of bread and wine to him, was a type of Christ. Hebrews 8: 3 tells us that “every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.” Jesus provides a divine blessing for us, offering Himself to His Father as a never ending sacrifice. Jesus’ glorified, resurrected body is the perpetual, New Covenant sacrifice, which we represent at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and receive in the Eucharist. This is why the New Covenant is superior to the Old.
3) Christ is not only our High Priest, but also the Lamb of God. In his vision of heaven recounted in the Book of Revelation, John writes, “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders [bishops], I saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God out into all the earth; and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. . .” (Rev 5: 6-9). This is a glimpse of the heavenly liturgy with Christ as both priest and victim.
4) Revelation, chapters 4-5 especially, not only reveal the heavenly liturgy, but prophesies both the destruction of the temple (by the Romans in 70 A.D.) and of events to come relevant to Christians today. But the climax of the Book is the unveiling of the bride of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem. The destruction of the old Jerusalem symbolizes the end of the Old Covenant.
5) Mary is the Ark of the Covenant (who contained the Word of God enfleshed) described at the end of Rev 11 and the Queen of heaven and earth described at the beginning of chapter 12. Remember that the chapter divisions were added to text centuries after it was written. The woman also represents the Church. The woman is called to be a virgin bride and fruitful mother and only Mary can overcome these apparent contradictions.
6) We end the series by reiterating its themes: (1)God is our Father; (2)the gift of salvation is God’s own divine sonship, not just forgiveness; (3)Covenant is an oath that God has sworn and the sacraments are the oaths of the New Covenant; (4)the Catholic Church is the Family of God!
