Overviews
Introduction
The Old Testament was composed over a period of
more than one thousand years. There were many political, cultural and
literary influences on the many authors that composed these books. In
this lesson we provide the tools to examine the literature to
understand what meaning we can find in them today.
We also look at how and why the books of the Old
Testament were written as they were. Understanding the original mission
and the first christians interpretation of these texts provides the
launching point for our prayful meditation today.
Introduction
Lecture
Genesis
The creation story, the fall and the selection of
a human family to bring us back to God provide fertile ground for
prayer and meditation. The early church fathers found the entire nature
of our existence in Genesis.
The image of Christ is found by Christians in
Genesis from the very primordial beginings. Gensis also provides the
basic story that repeats again and again in the Old Testament. God
creates good, we corrupt, God calls us to a new creation.
Genesis
Lecture
Covenant
Exodus provides the foundation of the relationship
between God and the Jewish people, including Jesus and the first
Christians. We perfect this celebration in the Resurrection of Christ
(Easter). The Exodus is the pattern on which our whole celebration of
Christs Resurrection and Eucharist are built.
The giving of the law on mount Sinai culminates
the Exodus experience with the manifestation of God's love. Chirst
gives the law to Moses, just as Christ creates the world in Genesis,
just as Christ renews and saves us in his resurrection.
Covenant
Lecture
Prophets
The prophets ofthe Old Testament are not like the
seers in The Star. They did not go around predicting the future. They
called God's people to obey the law of Sinai. Sometimes this involved
predicting dire events in the future to scare the people into the right
way of life.
The life of a prophet was blessed by personal
contact with the spirit of the Lord and cursed by the need to tell
powerful people they are behaving badly. The prophets still speak to us
today to remind us to live the life God intends for us and allow the
Lord to take control of our lives.
Prophets
Lecture
Messianic Prophecy and Apocalyptic
Jesus is the Messiah, Christ in Greek, the
anointed one in English. Jesus is heir to a long tradition of annoited
leaders in the Old Testament. From the first king Saul the prophets of
God annointed the choosen leaders. By the time of Jesus two types of
messiah were expected, the royal and the priestly. Christians saw both
in Jesus.
Apocalyptic literature widely circulated the image
of the messiah conquering the evil of this world. Apochalypses
encouraged a persecuted people to persevere in their faith as God will
save them. This widely abused and misunderstood literature was a
popular genre during the life of Jesus but very few examples were
included in scripture.
Messiah
and Apocalypse Lecture
The Writings
The eclectic collection of literature that is
neither Torah or Prophets are lumped together in the catagory of The
Writings. Here we have the beauty of the Song of Songs and the powerful
prayers of the Psalms. The search for wisdom is a common theme in this
collection. Wisdom is seen as the source of all our knowledge of God so
the early Christians associated this with Christ.
The Psalms have a profound impact on Jewish
worship and this formed the basis for all early Christian worship as
well. The breadth and depth of the poetry of prayer in the Psalms
nurtures us in liturgy. Morning, noon and night and through the seasons
of the year the Psalms call us to commune with God in prayer.
The
Writings Lecture
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