UNIT B: Introduction to the Bible & Old Testament

Contents

UNIT B: Introduction to the Bible & Old Testament......

Session 1: Different forms of communication:......

Session 2 : Poems, Prayers and Paradise......

Session 3 Family Histories......

Session 4 The giving of the Law and the beginnings of a nation......

Session 5 Triumphs and Disasters......

Assignments for Unit B:......

This unit has been prepared by Rev Elizabeth Jordan, with the assistance of the CCS Revision Group

This unit will:

Look at different kinds of writing in the Old Testament and why it is important to identify this variety.

Examine the Old Testament as it has been understood by Christians. These books are, of course, the scriptures of the Jewish people and are reverenced by Muslims, but the focus of this module is on the knowledge essential for understanding the Christian Gospel.

Look at the questions and longings that arose from Israel’s relationship with God which Christians believe are answered by Jesus Christ.

Each week there will be some preparation work which will be essential if you are going to participate in the following session – but it will be very short. Then there will be reading from Introducing the Old Testament or some other activity which is highly recommended – the expectation is that you will do this if at all possible. Thirdly there will be recommendation of study to do if you want to examine a topic more deeply.

Further Reading for this module:

John Barton, Making the Christian Bible, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1997. This is an easily readable book about the ‘mechanics’ of where our Bible came from – who wrote it, how the books were collected, what makes the books ‘Scripture’.

John Drane: Introducing the Old Testament, Lion 2011

Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee, How to read the Bible for all its worth, Zondevan 2003

Trevor Dennis, Sarah Laughed: Women’s Voices in the Old Testament, SPCK, 2010. This fascinating and lively book makes some of the more neglected Old Testament characters and stories come alive. It’s interesting and imaginative, as well as having a sound academic basis.

This unit looks at the Old Testament in the light of the Christian Good News. If you want to study how Jews read their Scriptures, you could start by looking at

"Scriptural reasoning," is the "open-ended practice of reading- and reasoning-in-dialogue among scholars of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.” See these websites for more details:

Graeme Goldsworthy, The Goldsworthy Trilogy (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 2000), especially useful for ‘Gospel and Kingdom’, explaining the overall pattern of the Old Testament.

Session 1: Different forms of communication:

AIM to examine the variety of material in the Bible and to learn to treat them in appropriate ways.

Opening worship

Introduction:

In groups of not more than 5 or 6, compare your reading of passages from the Old Testament. Was there anything here that surprised or excited you?

Are there some forms of writing that attract you more than others?

Can you think of any mistakes that might be made if one form was mistaken for another e.g. what you thought was law was really poetry?

Tutor Input

Referring to the notes that follow and the Bibles that group members have with them the tutor will show how the Old Testament is organised in our translations.

Types of material / Books of the Old Testament / Kinds of writing
The Pentateuch “The Law” / Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy / Story, history and law
History / Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther / Story and history
Poetry & Wisdom / Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon / Drama, poetry, proverbs, ‘wisdom literature’
The Prophets / Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi / Prophecy, history, poetry, propaganda

Group work: In groups of no more than 5 or 6

Choose a story from the Old Testament. It could be a well-remembered one from Sunday School, one from a recent church service or another favourite. Choose one or two people from your group who are going to become the storytellers. The whole group should consider what these people need in order to remember the story off by heart and tell it to the whole group in 3-5 minutes.

You may want to consider what you can learn from the strategies used by anyone who does not read or write as an aid to memory, for example;

use of repetition,
actions
rhyme or other ‘mnemonics’ such as lines beginning with the same letter
succeeding letters of the alphabet
making a word out of the first letters of a series of words(acrostics)
planning audience participation

Each group should then ‘perform’ their story for the whole group and then consider what they have found helps in remembering things without them being written down.

Closing worship

To follow up: ‘Old Testament Literature’ in Introducing the Old Testament pages 1-3 gives an overview of each book of the Old Testament. Pages 3 and 4 contain useful maps and there is a broad timeline on page 5.

Oral Tradition: It is less likely that the storytellers of the past found ways to remember existing stories than that they constructed the stories in ways that are easy to memorise. The translation from the Hebrew obscures some of the memory aides that are used, such as the fact that each of the verses of Psalm 119 begins with the succeeding letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but you may still be able to identify repetition and verbal play. Look at the early chapters of Daniel, for examples.

A formative book on ‘orality’ the use of speech rather than text, is Walter Ong, ‘Orality and Literature’ and this can be found online at

Preparation for Session 2:

Essential Work:

The Old Testament begins with a book full of stories that may be well known to us from school or Sunday School. In a way it is a shame that they have become so popular in books for young people. It is only when we appreciate the depths of spirituality and understanding of God possessed by the Israelites that we can see that these stories are not children’s tales, or bad science. This session will look at the first eleven chapters of Genesis, which are intricate accounts of the origins of the world, trying to explain human relationships, the nature of God and the way societies work.

There are two stories of creation – the first between Genesis 1:1 and 2:3 and the second in the remainder of chapter 2. There are two accounts of the Flood, interweaved with each other. These are clearly ancient traditions collected by an editor or editors who did not want to leave out the important learning. Other early communities had their own stories about the beginnings of the world and even about a flood – but Genesis gives a very distinctive picture of a God who wants a relationship with his people, and of human beings who have a choice in how to act. These stories were probably told for many centuries before they were written down; the form in which we have them contains echoes of some of the events and experiences that happened since they were first told. So, though they have very early origins, they are also a mirror of the many ways in which God’s people thought about their relationship with God.

These stories in Genesis chapters 1-11 describe our present human existence as incomplete. They tell of a time in the far past when we lived at ease with ourselves, the planet and God, but that we have been evicted from Paradise, living restless lives, aching to be allowed to return. The book of Genesis sets the scene for all that happens in the books which come after, and points to the future as well. The stories happen in a place and time which is out of the ordinary and the conflicts they describe will only be resolved in a space beyond time.

Preparation for Session 2, continued. . .

Read, or listen to, thefirst eleven chapters of the book of Genesis.

Even if the stories are familiar to you, it is unlikely you have read them in their entirety, or in sequence. Make a note of anything that has surprised you about these stories on this reading.

If you have children’s books at home with these stories in, bring them with you to Session 2.

Further, recommended work: Read the additional material supplied with this unit:‘Introducing the Old Testament’– Primeval History,pages 6-12. Look at the maps and timeline on pages 3-5

Session 2 : Poems, Prayers and Paradise

AIM To read the early chapters of Genesis for what they teach us about human nature and God’s relationship with us.

Opening worship

Introduction

Compare the children’s books that group members have brought and what you have learned from your own reading of the first chapters of Genesis. Are there differences in what is communicated in the books and in the Bible?

In small groups: Each group should examine at leastone of the following sets of stories. The tutor may help in the allocation of the stories so that as many as possible are covered.

The Creation of the World: Read Genesis 1:26-30, 2:15-17 and answer the following questions:

What do these verses tell you about human beings? For example:

What does ‘being made in the image of God’ mean to you?
What are theneeds that human beings have, according to this passage and the tasks given to human beings?
NB: The word ‘helper’, used to describe Eve in Genesis 2:18 and 2:20 is everywhere else in the Old Testament used to describe God! (e.g. Psalm. 54:4)

The Fall – or not?Read Genesis chapter 3:1-24 and answer the following questions:

List as many words as you can from this story that describes God.
Is there a sense in which God led Adam and Eve into temptation? Why put a tree in full sight of Adam and Eve and then tell them not to eat from it?
What do you understand by the phrase ‘Lead us not into temptation’ in the Lord’s Prayer?

A Lot of Water!(Genesis 6: 1 – 9:17)Don’t read the whole story again, but share with each other what you can remember of it. Ask yourself the same questions as before:

What does it tell us about God?
What does it tell us about human beings?

Make sure one group looks atthis less well known story:

Many voices – the tower of Babel.Read Genesis Chapter 11:1-9 and answer the following questions:

How did what the people wanted and what God wanted clash? / People / God
Are there any countries or groups you know of who seek security rather than carrying out God’s will in the scary world beyond safety?

Make time for each group to share what they have recorded – and any other parts of their discussions.

Tutor led discussion:

Summarise the discussion of ‘Science and Faith’ in Introducing the Old Testament.

If there are scientists present invite their contribution on scientific method.

Discuss what it means to say these stories are theological, rather than science or history. What does truth mean in this context?

You will need to divide into two groups to study different parts of the Bible for next session.

Close with prayer …..

Preparation for Session 3:

Divide into two small groups; one to look at Abraham Sarah, the other to look at Jacob Joseph.

Essential: Read the Bible passages for the section of family histories that you have been asked to prepare.

Abraham and Sarah / Jacob and Joseph

Genesis 12:1-20
Genesis 15:1-21
Genesis 17:1–22

Genesis 37:1–36
Genesis 41, 14 – 36
Genesis 45, 1- 20

Further, recommended reading: Read ‘Primeval History -The Pentateuch’ in Introducing the Old Testament pages 13-16. Then read the pages for the section of family histories that you have been asked to prepare:

Abraham Sarah, pages 17 – 20
Jacob Joseph pages 23-24

Further notes about Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob and Esau are on pages 21 - 22

Of course, you could read everything!

Session 3 Family Histories

AIM To learn about the early ancestors of the People of God

Opening worship

Introduction:

This section will be looking at the stories of the early ancestors of the Jewish nation; the extended family descended from Abraham. We will look at them here as ancestors of the Christian family, but you should be aware that Jews read the stories in a different light. Muslims, too, identify themselves as ‘Children of Abraham.’

There are suggestions of sources of information about Jewish and Islamic understandings in the Further Research section.

A note on names:
It is clear that Israelites paid a lot of attention to the names they gave their children, and to the names by which people were known. Probably the only time we are likely to change names is on getting married, but the Israelites might do so after other major changes in circumstances. Abram and Sarai change their names after encounters with God, recorded in Genesis 17. Abraham means ‘Father of many nations’ and Sarah means ‘princess’.

For the whole group to discuss:

Family history. There are three main groups of stories in Genesis: some about Abraham and Sarah, some about Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob, and some about Joseph. They are the foundational stories for the nation of Israel – they may explain present day circumstances and have helped to mould the character of the nation.

Are there equivalents for our country - King Arthur? Richard the Lionheart? Winston Churchill? Elizabeth 1? What effect do these people’s stories have?

Or Christian leaders? – St Francis? Mother Theresa? Desmond Tutu? Who has influenced you?

How much does it matter whether these people were historically real, or that all the stories about them are accurate?

Divide into two groups, one to concentrate on the stories about Abraham Sarah, and one on Jacob Joseph.

Abraham and Sarah:

(Be prepared to tell the rest of the group what you have discovered about ‘your’ research.)
Recall Genesis 12:1-20: God promises that ‘in Abraham all the nations of the world will be blessed’. From the very beginning the covenant does not only affect Abraham’s family. When can you see this beginning to take effect?
Recall Genesis 15:1-21: In this story Abram is not satisfied with rather general promises of blessing – he wants children and assurance that he will inherit land.

How does God react to this?
Does Abram receive exactly what he asks for?

Recall Genesis 17:1-22In this story God again comes to Abraham with promises, but this time there are conditions as well. God makes a covenant with Abraham – a very significant concept in the Jewish religion.God promises that Abraham and Sarah’s family would be large and that he would establish a covenant with them all. They would receive Canaan as their permanent home.In return Abraham is to walk in God’s ways, and to circumcise the males in his household.

Responding to these words of God’s required faith on Abraham’s part – they seemed impossible. (These ancient people were not ignorant of the facts of life!) God didn’t make it easy for him – why do you think that was?

Jacob and Joseph:

(Be prepared to report some of your discussion to the groups studying Abraham & Sarah and Isaac & Rebekah.)
Recall Genesis 37, 1-36:Joseph is not presented in an attractive light, and Jacob has clearly favoured him. How do you think his elder brothers could/should have reacted?
Recall Genesis 41, 14 – 36: The Israelites rejoiced in stories of triumph over adversity. What qualities have enabled Joseph to rise to the top of Egyptian society?
Recall Genesis 45, 1- 20: How would this story tell later generations of God’s power all over the world?

Each group should report the substance of their discussions to the other two groups.

Tutor input: describe the nature of the covenant with Abraham and what has been learned about the choice of Israel as God’s people, the covenant made with God and the reason that God made a covenant.

Group Work

God’s covenant with his people was conditional: If his people kept their side of the covenant, God’s love and faithfulness knew no bounds. But if they failed to do this, judgement would result. What do you think were the advantages and disadvantages of a covenant like that?

Closing worship