SALVATION HISTORY: God's Plan of Salvation for

Humanity from Genesis to the Birth of the New

Covenant Church
The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed
to prepare for it over the centuries.  He makes everything converge on Christ: all
the rituals and sacrifices, figures and symbols of the "First Covenant."  He
announces him through the mouths of the prophets who succeeded one another
in Israel.  Moreover, he awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of
this coming.
Catechism of the Catholic Church # 522

Beginning with the opening chapters of the book of Genesis and continuing to the
book of Revelation, God the Father reveals His plan of salvation and His loving
desire to re-establish the broken relationship between Himself and man.  The
promise and the beginning of the fulfillment of that plan is manifested in the
Incarnation of Jesus the Messiah.  The Bible is, in fact, focused on Jesus our
Redeemer from Genesis to Revelation.  The Vatican II document, Dei
Verbum expresses the focus and intent of Christ in God's master plan
as: "...wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, He manifested Himself
to our first parents from the very beginning.  After the fall, He buoyed them up
with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption (cf. Genesis 3:15); and He
has never ceased to take care of the human race.  For He wishes to give eternal
life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing (cf. Romans 2:6-7). 
In his own time God called Abraham, and made his into a great nation
(cf. Genesis 12:2).  After the era of the patriarchs, He taught this nation, by
Moses and the prophets, to recognize Him as the only living and true God, as a
provident Father and just judge.  He taught them, too, to look for the promised
Savior.  And so, throughout the ages, He prepared the way for the Gospel.  After
God had spoken many times and in various ways through the prophets, 'in these
last days He has spoken to us by a Son' (Hebrews 1:1-2).  For He sent his Son,
the eternal Word who enlightens all men..." [Pope Paul VI, Dei Verbum 3-
4, 1965]

It is important for modern Christians to understand that the Bible is not only a
book of faith but it is also a book of history.  It was within the unfolding of actual
human events that God has embodied His revelation of salvation and revealed
Himself to man.  In the general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, on May 11,
2005, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, preached a message of hope by
reminding the faithful of God's divine intervention in human history.  Pope
Benedict told the circa 17,000 people present that "History is not in the hands of
dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices.  The Lord, supreme arbiter
of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement
onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly
guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned
in the last part of the book [of Revelation] in the image of the New Jerusalem."

It is the goal of this study to give a more complete understanding of God's

comprehensive plan of salvation as the revelation of that plan unfolds in human
time and through God ordained events. This comprehensive study outlines
twelve periods of Bible history by touching on the major Biblical and historical
events of each period with references to the corresponding Biblical passages.
Michal Hunt, 2005

Lesson #1: INTRODUCTORY LESSON

Beloved Heavenly Father, 
In the unfolding events of the history of mankind You have revealed Yourself to
us.  You have expressed through real time and real events Your desire that every
human being should come to know You and to experience Your deep abiding
love.  Bless us, Father, as we study Your plan of salvation and redemption for
humanity--a plan in which each of us has a role to fill and a journey in time to
take.  In the name the Most Holy Trinity: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 
Amen

+++
Pope Paul the VI wrote, "The history of salvation is being accomplished in the
midst of the history of the world."  We usually think of the Bible as a book of faith
but we seldom consider that it is also a book of history.  The New Webster
Dictionary defines "history" as "That branch of knowledge which deals with
events that have taken place in the world's existence; the study of investigation
of the past; a narrative or account of an event or series of events in the life of a
nation, or that have marked the progress of existence of any community or
institution; [...] an account of an individual person."

The Bible is a record of all of these things.  It is an account of the world's

existence from the beginning of creation.  It is a narrative of the events in the
birth of the nation of Israel.  It is an account of the progress of a people set apart
by God and of the community He established to worship and fellowship with
Him.  And finally, the Bible contains the accounts of the lives of numerous
individuals.  Put in its simplest terms it can be said that the Bible is the history of
the relationship between humans and the divine, but it is really so much more
than the simple retelling of the events concerned with that relationship.

The Bible is God's comprehensive plan of salvation for the redemption of

mankind.  It is the plan that is recounted in a book we call the Bible; a book that
begins in the Book of Genesis with the creation of heaven and earth, and with a
bride, and a wedding –the union of Adam and Eve, and ends in the Book of
Revelation, the last Bible book with a new creation, a bride and, a
wedding: Revelation 21:1-2 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first
heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any
sea.  I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband."(verse 9) "Come here and I
will show you the bride that the Lamb has married." This is the Wedding Feast of
the Lamb and His Bride, the Church, "Blessed are those who are invited to the
wedding feast of the Lamb!" [Revelation 19:9].

In this study we will be reading Scripture passages from selected chronological

books of the Old and New Testaments that correspond to the 12 major periods of
Biblical history.  Scholars disagree on the date of these 12 Biblical periods prior
to the split between the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel.  Most dates are taken
from the New Jerusalem Bible.

THE 12 MAJOR PERIODS OF BIBLICAL HISTORY

BIBLICAL PERIOD DATE

1.  Creation and History of the Early World ? – 2000 B.C.

2.  The Patriarchs 2000 – 1675 B.C.
3.  The 12 Tribes of Israel in Egypt/ The Sinai Covenant 1675 – 1275 B.C.
4. The Conquest of Canaan 1275 – 1220 B.C.
5.  The Rule of the Judges of Israel 1220 – 1050 B.C.
6. The United Kingdom of Israel 1050 – 930 B.C.
7. The Divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah 930 – 722 B.C.
8. The Assyrian Exile of Israel and 
  722 – 538 B.C.
    The Babylonian Exile of Judah
9.  The Remnant of Judah Returns/
  538 – 323 B.C.
     The Conquest of the Greeks
10. Hellenistic Period; The Revolt of the Maccabees/
323 – 63 B.C.
     The Rule of the Hasmons
11. Jesus the Messiah and the New Exodus   28 B.C. – A.D.30
12. The New Covenant Church   30 A.D. –

Please consult the Chart of the Chronological Books of Bible History that we will

be using in the Salvation History course.  Some of the passages we will be
reading in this study are from the Old Testament book of 2 Maccabees, an Old
Testament book not found in Protestant Bibles or in the Jewish Old Testament
Tanach.  Did you know that Catholic and Protestant Bibles do not have the same
number of sacred books?
THE CANON OF SACRED SCRIPTURE:

Both Catholic and Protestants divide the Christian Bible into two parts: the Old
Testament, sometime referred to as the Hebrew or Jewish Bible, which is
composed of the inspired "Sacred Writings" [see Matthew 21:42] before the birth
of Jesus Christ, and the New Testament which is composed of the inspired
writings of Jesus' Apostles Matthew, John, Paul* and Peter, His disciples James
Bishop of Jerusalem and Jude [most scholars cite Jude 1:17 as evidence that he
is not an Apostle], and disciples of His Apostles, Mark and Luke.   The English
word "testament" that we use to define these two halves of the Bible comes from
the Latin word "testamentum".  When the Biblical scholar St. Jerome wrote his
Latin vulgate translation of the Bible in the late 4 th century he used the Latin word
"testamentum" to translate the Greek word diatheke and the Hebrew word berith,
both of which mean "covenant".  Jerome's translation of the word "testament" for
"covenant" has been carried over into English translations.   A Biblical covenant
is a sacred agreement between God and a people or God and an individual.  The
covenant relationship is a central theme of Sacred Scripture.   It is therefore
probably more accurate to say the Christian Bible is divided into the sacred
books of the Old Covenant, which recounts God's relationship with a chosen line
of the descendants of Adam which became the Old Covenant Church [Israel],
and the books of the New Covenant, which record the events of the
establishment of the New Covenant Church [the "universal = catholic" Church] by
the "new Adam", Jesus the Messiah, and the covenant relationship between the
Most Holy Trinity'God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit' and New
Covenant believers.
[*Note: St. Paul did not became a Christian until after Jesus' Ascension, however,
he is considered to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ because he was personally
chosen by Jesus and given his apostolic mission during his miraculous vision on
the road to Damascus. St. Paul attests to his special calling by identifying himself
as an Apostle especially in the beginning of each of his epistles.  See Romans
1:1; 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1;
2:8; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 1 Timothy 1:1; 2:6-7; 2 Timothy 1:1, 11; Titus
1:1].

Within these two major divisions are many individual books.  During the first
century AD when Jesus was teaching that He had come to establish the
Kingdom of God on earth Jesus usually quoted [Old Testament] Scripture
passages from the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.  This translation
was called the Greek Septuagint[sometimes expressed with the Roman
symbols for 70 = LXX; a designation referring to the tradition that 70 Jewish
scholars had been inspired by God to make the translation].  This translation
from the Hebrew Sacred Scriptures into Greek was made in the 3 rd century BC. 
By that time most Jews and Israelites living outside of the Holy Land no longer
spoke Hebrew, but in addition to their local dialects they also spoke the
international language, which was Greek, the language spread by the armies of
Alexander the Great in his conquest of the known world.  Therefore, the Greek
language became the first language translation of Hebrew Sacred Scripture.

By the first century AD, at the time Jesus lived, Hebrew had become a liturgical
language spoken only by scholars, priests and during the Temple liturgy [much
like Latin is still the spoken and written language in the Roman Catholic Church
today].  The common people spoke Aramaic and most people also spoke the
international language, Greek.  At that time there were at least 46 books included
in the canon of the Greek Septuagint translation [although they were not divided
as we divide them today into 46 books].  Not only are most of the Scripture
passages quoted by Jesus in the Gospels from this translation but the majority of
other Scripture quotes found in the other New Testament books are from the
Septuagint translation. The books of the Septuagint became the official Old
Testament canon of the New Covenant Church and later the 27 books of the
New Testament were added to give a total of the73 sacred books that are found
in today's Catholic Bibles.

After the destruction of Jerusalem and God's Holy Temple by the Romans in
70AD a group of Jewish scholars received permission from the Roman
government to gather at a town called Jamnia [Jabneh].  These Jewish scholars,
Pharisees and rabbis, formed a religious council and a school to study Sacred
Scripture.  Since the followers of Jesus were using the Greek Septuagint
translation for apologetic and evangelistic purposes--using the text to prove that
Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Covenant and was indeed the promised
Messiah-- this translation became an anathema to the Jewish scholars of
Jamnia.  Christians, for example, were using the Greek text from Isaiah
7:14 "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son...", quoted from the Septuagint
in Matthew 1:23 as proof of the prophecy of the virgin birth.  In response to the
conversion of many Jews to Christianity through the Septuagint translation, in
about 100AD the scholars of Jamnia authorized a new Greek translation
specifically to hinder such "proofs" of fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecy,
thereby hoping to hinder the spread of Christianity.  For example, the Jewish
scholar Aquila, with the approval of the council, changed the Greek
word "parthenos" = "virgin" in the Isaiah 7:14 passage to the Greek word for
"young woman" = "neanis" in the newer Greek translation.  These scholars also
began to debate the Old Covenant canon and began recording the Oral Law [c.
200AD], which had been passed down through the ministerial priesthood from
the time of Moses.  This recording of the Oral Law would become the Mishnah.
The Mishnah and its commentary, the Gemara [there are two, the Babylonian
and the Palestinian], comprise the Jewish Talmud.

Even though challenges to the canonicity of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon

were debated at Jamnia, none of the 46 books of the 1 st century AD Septuagint
that we have in our Catholic Bibles were dropped until the early Middle Ages
when the Masorites, a school of Jewish scholars, re-translated the altered Greek
language Old Testament that was constructed in Jamnia back into Hebrew.  At
this time 7 books which we include were dropped from the Old Covenant canon
including the only books of the Old Testament that recounted the story of the
Jewish feast of Hanukkah, 1 and 2 Maccabees.  The other books dropped from
the Jewish canon were Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch, along
with parts of the texts of Daniel and Esther.  Later in the 16th century AD, after
over a thousand years of accepting the Catholic canon, Protestant Christians
rejected the canon of the Catholic Old Testament and instead accepted both the
translations and canon of the anti-Christian Masoretic Jewish Old Testament.

Comparison of surviving Old Testament translations:

TRANSLATION DATE

Septuagint- Greek Old

Testament translation used at c. 250 BC
the time of Christ
Oldest Hebrew texts date to
Dead Sea Scrolls O.T. books
c. 250 BC
Jamnia Greek Bible O.T. 2 century AD
Latin Vulgate Bible 4th century AD
Masoretic Old Testament 9th  century AD 
[used in the Modern Jewish  
Tanach = O.T.]  
 -oldest surviving text =  
Aleppo codex  -c. 950 AD

Today the Protestant Old Testament has 39 books plus the 27 New Testament
books for a total of 66 books.  The Catholic Bible has 46 Old Testament books
plus the 27 New Testament books for a total of 73 books.

We have already discussed that the Christian Bible is divided into two major
divisions of the Old Covenant books and the books of the New Covenant in
Christ.  Although there are many books that compose the Bible and many writers
who contributed to those books, Christian tradition has firmly taught for nearly
2,000 years [until the 18thcentury and the so called "Age of Enlightenment"] that
there is only one author: the One True and Living God.  Since the Bible is
divinely inspired through human writers the Catholic Church has always
maintained that this Book is both human and divine just as Christ, the Living
Word of God is both human and divine.  In fact, the Catholic Church has always
taught that this Book is about Jesus Christ from cover to cover.  This belief has
been part of the Christian tradition since the earliest years of the Church:
1. In Peter's first letter to the Church he writes in chapter one verse 20 that Christ,
the spotless Lamb "was marked out before the world was made, and was
revealed at the final point of time for your sake." 
2. St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 10 writes to them in verse
1-4 that in the great Exodus experience the Children of Israel were protected in
their journey by Christ: "I want you to be quite certain, brothers that our
ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea.  In the
cloud and in the sea they were all baptized into Moses; all ate the same spiritual
food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual
rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ."  And then in verse 11 St.
Paul tells the Corinthians that "all these things happened to them by way of
example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has
fallen to live in the last days of the ages." 
3. Jesus' testimony to the Jews of Jerusalem about what we call the Old Testament
in John 5:39 "You pore over the Scriptures believing that in them you can find
eternal life; it is these Scriptures that testify to me..."
4. Resurrection Sunday Jesus appeared to two disciples who are traveling to their
home in Emmaus and teaches them in Luke 24:25-27 "'You foolish men!  So
slow to believe all that the prophecies have said!  Was it not necessary that the
Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?' Then, starting with Moses and
going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout
the scriptures that were about himself." 
5. And when Jesus appeared that same Resurrection Sunday to the Apostles in the
Upper Room in Luke 24:44-45 "Then he told them, 'This is what I meant when I
said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of
Moses  [first 5 books of the Old Testament], in the Prophets and in the
Psalms,  was destined to be fulfilled.' He then opened their minds to understand
the Scriptures..."

For Christians, this is the way the Old Testament books should be studied.  St.
Augustan, the great 4th century Biblical scholar, restated Jesus teaching in Luke
chapter 24 by telling his students that one must be aware in the study of Sacred
Scripture that "the New [Testament] is hidden in the Old and the
Old [Testament] is fulfilled in the New."  This will be the focus in our study of
Salvation History, to discover Christ in God's plan for our Salvation from Creation
and history of the early world to the birth of the New Covenant people.  We will
be focusing on the promises, prophecies, covenants, and types [people, events,
or objects that prefigure the Christ] in the Old Testament that point to the coming
of the Messiah and are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament.

Please note that all Scripture references quoted in this study are taken from the
New Jerusalem Bible translation, 1985 edition.  Other good translations are the
St. Ignatius Bible [Revised Standard Version], and the New American Catholic
Bible.  I do not recommend the Living Bible translations nor do I recommend the
King James Version translations.  All English, and other language translations,
are not completely accurate translations.  Translators often compromise the
literal translation to make the text more "readable".  In fact all translations are to
some extent an interpretation of the original text.  In this study I use an Interlinear
Hebrew-English Old Testament text and an Interlinear Greek-English New
Testament text to check for accuracy of translation.

Please consult the chart "Time Line of Periods of History in the Holy

Land" as well as the Old and New Testament Time Lines found in the Charts
section of this study for a better understanding of the periods of history and the
related Bible stories from pre-history to the present in the Holy Land.

THE BOOK OF MOSES

"All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people's
lives and teaching them to be upright." 2 Timothy 3:16

In the Jewish tradition the first five books of the Bible are called the Torah. 
Christians often refer to these five books as the Pentateuch, a term derived from
the Greek word "pentateuchos", which simply means "five-part book", a
designation that came into use in the second century AD.  Christians usually
think of the Pentateuch as a collection of the five books of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but the Torah [Pentateuch] was originally
intended to be read as a single book.  The references in Sacred Scripture clearly
indicate that it was considered to be one book, for example:

 2 Chronicles 25:4 "...this was in accordance with what was written in the Law,
in the book of Moses..."
 2 Chronicles 35:12 "Next they put the burnt offering aside for presentation to
the family divisions of the laity, so that they could offer it to Yahweh in the
way prescribed in the Book of Moses."
 Ezra 6:18 "Then they installed the priests in their orders and the Levites in
their positions for the ministry of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, as
prescribed in the Book of Moses."
 Nehemiah 8:1 "Now when the seventh month came round'the Israelites being
in their towns--all the people gathered as one man in the square in front of
the Water Gate, and asked the scribe Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of
Moses which Yahweh had prescribed for Israel."
 Nehemiah 13:1 "At that time they were reading to the people from the Book of
Moses, when they found this written in it.."
 And in Mark 12:24-26 Jesus corrects the Sadducees, who denied the
resurrection: "Surely the reason why you are wrong is that you understand
neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For when they rise from the
dead, men and women do not marry; no they are like the angels in heaven. 
Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him and said: 'I am the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob'?  He is the God not
 of the dead, but of the living.  You are very much mistaken." In this passage
Jesus is clearly referring to Exodus 3:6 but calls the text "the Book of Moses."

Both tradition and Sacred Scripture support the premise that the original text of
the Pentateuch was intended to be read and studied as a single book.

THE QUESTION OF THE AUTHORSHIP OF

THE BOOK OF MOSES
"You pore over the Scriptures believing that in them you can find eternal life; it is
these Scriptures that testify to me. [..].  Do not imagine that I am going to accuse
you before the Father: you have placed your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be
the one who accuses you.  If you really believed him you would believe me too,
since it was about me that he was writing; and if you will not believe what he
wrote, how can you believe what I say"?Jesus' discourse to the Jews in John
5: 39, 45-47

Usually when we speak of the authors of Sacred Scripture we are thinking of the
individuals, the prophets and other holy men who wrote down the words of each
of the books, but according to the text of Sacred Scripture these men may have
been the human writers but it is God who is the author.  Both St. Paul and St.
Peter testified to this belief in 2 Timothy 3:16 [see above] and in 2 Peter
1:21 where Peter wrote, "For no prophecy ever came from human initiative. 
When people spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them."  This has
always been the position of the Church-- that the Bible is both human and divine
in its origins just as the Living Word was Himself both human and divine.  This
was the belief for both Jewish and Christian scholars until the Age of
Enlightenment in the 18th century when the Bible began to be studied simply as
literature devoid of any divine connection.

In the Jewish and the Christian tradition, and for most of the Christian era, Moses
is given credit for having been inspired by God to write down the very words of
God contained in the Pentateuch, and the Biblical text supports this claim.

Evidence of Mosaic Authorship in Scripture

"Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you have
placed your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be the one who accuses you.  If
you really believed him you would believe me too, since it was about me that he
was writing.."  Jesus addressing the Jews of Jerusalem in John 5:45-46

Evidence within the Pentateuch

EVIDENCE PASSAGE
 -Exodus 17:14; 20:22-23:33; 24:4,7; 34:27
Passages in the books referring
-Numbers chapter 32; 33:2
directly to Mosaic authorship
-Deuteronomy 31:9, 24-26
-Exodus 12:1-28; chapters 20-24; chapters 25-31;
chapter 34
-Leviticus chapters 1-7; chapter 8; chapters 13-
Legal documents within the 16; chapters 17-25; chapter 27
Pentateuch attributed to Moses -Numbers chapters 1, 2, &4; 6:1-21; 8:1-4; 8:5-22;
chapter s 15 & 19; 27:6-23; chapters 28-30;
chapter 35
-Deuteronomy chapters 1-33

Evidence from Other Old Testament Books

EVIDENCE PASSAGE

-Joshua 1:7, 8; 8:31-32; 23:6

-1Kings 2:3
-2Kings 14:6; 23:25
-1Chronicles 22:13
Evidence from the historical writings:
-2Chronicles 5:10; 23:18; 25:4; 30:16;
33:8; 34:14; 35:12
-Ezra 3:2; 6:18; 7:6
-Nehemiah 1:7,8; 8:1, 14; 9:14; 10:29; 13:1
-Ecclesiasticus [Ben Sira] 24:23
Evidence from the wisdom books and
-Daniel 9:11, 13
the prophets
-Malachi 4:4

Evidence from the New Testament Books

EVIDENCE PASSAGE

*= Jesus' testimony
-Mark 12:19
-Luke 2:22; 5:14*; 16:29-31*; 20:8;
Evidence found in the Gospels
24:27*, 44*
-John 1:17, 45; 5:45-47*; 7:19*, 23*;
8:5; 9:29
Evidence from Acts, the Epistles of Paul -Acts 3:22; 6:14; 13:39; 15:1, 21; 26:22;
 28:23
-Romans 10:5
-1Corinthians 9:9
and Revelation
-2Corinthians 3:15
-Hebrews 9:19; 10:28
-Revelation 15:3

M. Hunt 2004

Testimony to Mosaic authorship is stated as least 27 times by the New

Testament writers, 7 of those affirmation of Mosaic authorship are quotations of
Jesus' statements identifying Moses as the inspired writer of the "Book of
Moses", also called the Torah or the Pentateuch.

External evidence supporting Mosaic authorship can be found in Jewish tradition,

in the Jewish Talmud, the Mishnah, the writings of 1st century Jewish scholars
like Philo of Alexandria and Josephus, as well in surviving pre-first century AD
Jewish commentaries.  The writings of the Apostolic Church Fathers, and the
lists of the early Christian canons also support Mosaic authorship.

Today, however, most Biblical scholars ascribe to the "documentary theory" for
formation of the Book of Moses.  This theory was at first rejected by both
Protestant and Catholic scholars but gained popularity in the 19 th century when it
was reformatted and presented by the German Protestant scholars Graf and
Wellhausen.   These scholars theorized that the Pentateuch was an amalgam of
different documents composed and developed from different places and at
different times, long after Moses may have lived, perhaps as late as the return
from the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century BC.  Today this theory, know as
the Documentary Hypothesis, theorizes that four documents came together: the
Yahwistic source, the Elohistic source, the Priestly source and the Deuteronomic
source, which were eventually edited, centuries after they were composed, into
one book.  A major weakness of this theory is that no two scholars seem to be
able to agree as to which passages should be assigned to which of the four
document sources.  The other major problem is that not a shred of physical
evidence exists to support this theory.  An ancient document has never been
discovered that even hints that any author other than God's inspired writer, the
prophet Moses, wrote the Book of the Law of Moses, nor has any partial text
been discovered that would correspond to any separate supposed separate
strand, nor does sacred Tradition speak of any orally transmitted separate strand
that refers to God by only one name [a basis of the documentary theory based on
each separated strand being keyed to different names used for God].   In
addition, there is no archeological evidence to support the Documentary
Hypothesis.  There are no written or oral traditions in existence today that contain
less than all of the supposed "four document sources."  If the Book of Moses was
not composed by Moses but instead was a clever interweaving of four different
oral traditions, the question begs to be asked why none of the four individual
strands have survived independently in oral or written form.  Instead, source
written copies and oral traditions pertaining to the writings of Moses exist in a
complete form similar to that of our Bible today, not in fragmented strands. For
example, if Genesis chapter I and Genesis chapter II offer two separate creation
stories that originate from two separate sources, then why is there no written or
oral Jewish tradition of two creation accounts that mention the content of one
chapter without mentioning the content of the other?  The unification of these two
elements in ancient sources supports that they were not separate in origin.

Other criticisms of Mosaic authorship include the argument that the text is too
sophisticated to have been written that early in recorded history.  Those scholars
and critics obviously are neglecting the fact that we have whole archives of court
documents and literature from the Sumerian civilization that date to circa
3200BC.  We have recovered 40,000 lines of text from the Sumerians that were
written approximately 2,700 years before Moses lived.   Centuries before the
birth of Abraham [c. 2000BC] Samaria, Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia were full of
schools and libraries that produced works of history, poetry, and theology as well
as dictionaries in multiple languages.

Archaeological evidence supports the claim that a work like the Pentateuch could
have been written in the late bronze age or even earlier, and the inscriptions of
Hebrew slaves found in Bronze Age Egyptian turquoise mines in the Sinai prove
there was a higher degree of literacy among the common people than scholars
previously believed.

And then one must take into consideration that:

 Moses was raised and educated as a prince in the royal household of a

nation that was a world super-power. Egyptians had a fully developed writing
system that has been dated back to at least 3,000BC and Moses, who would
have been educated in the highly developed academic environment of the
Egyptian royal court, would have been preeminently prepared to write the text
of the Pentateuch.
 Moses would have received the oral traditions of his people from his Hebrew
mother who served as his royal nurse.
 The Pentateuch illustrates the knowledge of an individual who possessed an
intimate understanding of the climate, geography, traditions, language [many
words, and names, found in the Exodus account are either Egyptian or are
derived from Egyptian words], and building practices of the Egyptians.
 The Exodus experience spanned 40 years--more than enough time and
opportunity to complete the work.

If we assume that Moses is indeed the Holy Spirit inspired writer, then the first
question we should ask is for who was this book written and why?  Let's address
the "why" first.
Question: When Moses first encountered Yahweh in the "burning bush
experience" what question did Moses ask God?  Hint: see Exodus 3:13
Answer: Moses asked God "Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The
God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is his
name?'  What am I to tell them?"

The short answer to that question was God's holy covenant name, which
scholars today expresses as YAHWEH-- but the long answer to "Who are you,
God?" is the Pentateuch!  The long answer includes that the God who sent
Moses is:

1. the God of Creation

2. the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
3. the God who promised your ancestors that their children would be the heirs of a
divine covenant and a future world-wide blessing

Questions for group discussion:

Moses became the prophet to the newly formed nation of Israel.  Moses and his
generation lived the incredible adventures of the Exodus experience and so it is
important to ask ourselves, before we begin this study...
Question:  If Moses' contemporaries lived the experience of the Exodus and had
received the earlier history orally passed down from previous generations for
whom then was the Pentateuch written?
Answer: The first generation lived the experience and so the focus of the Book
of Moses is on the future, the next generations.  They were the heirs of the
Covenant who must faithful keep the commandments of God in order to fulfill
their covenant obligations, to preserve the promised sacred "seed of the Woman"
[promised in Genesis 3:15] and to be the catalyst of God's Plan of Salvation.  In
this sense, the Pentateuch becomes a primer, a lesson book for the inheritors of
Yahweh's holy Covenant.

Question: Why does the Pentateuch contain these particular stories out of all the
events that occurred in all the lives from Adam to Abraham to Joshua?  What are
the lessons to be learned from the stories of the Pentateuch from Eden to the
entrance of the children of Israel into the Promised Land?  Hint: think of the
human failures recounted in the Book of Moses and God's interaction with
mankind.
Answer:

 Israel's future generations are warned through a long list of human failures,
from our first parents Adam and Eve to the age of the Patriarchs, and to the
two Exodus generations of the terrible toll in human suffering caused by
failing to be obedient to God.  All these human failures are addressed in the
10 Commandments and the expanded Law of the Sinai Covenant.
 Israel's future generations are also shown evidence of God's faithfulness in
spite of the failures of that first generation.
 These stories also contain the history of the "promised seed" of Genesis
3:15 in the line of descent that will stretch from Adam's son Seth through
Abraham through King David to Jesus of Nazareth [see Luke's genealogy of
Jesus in Luke 3:23-38].

Question: What is the importance of these stories in the lives of the covenant

keepers of today's New Covenant people?  How does the Pentateuch relate to
you?  Hint: see what St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:11-13.
Answer: 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 concerning the Exodus generations: "Now all
these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in
writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the
ages.  Everyone, no matter how firmly he thinks he is standing, must be careful
he does not fall.  None of the trials which have come upon you is more than a
human being can stand.  You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test
beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling
you to put up with it."

We will begin this study with the first period of Biblical history, Creation and the
History of the Early World.  Please read the Scripture passages we will be
studying in this period. Keep in mind that in the original texts there were no
chapter or verse divisions [added in the 13th and 18th centuries AD], so you may
want to include in your reading the verses or chapters immediately before and
after these passages.

Question: In addition to the written text of Sacred Scripture God has revealed
Himself to His people through another source.  What is that source and is there
an Old Testament link to this non-written source of revelation?
Answer: Down through Salvation History God has revealed Himself through a
Sacred Oral Tradition handed down by men chosen by God to be the reservoir of
that tradition with the responsibility of handing that knowledge on to the next
generation.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies the character of this
Sacred Tradition in #78: "This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy
Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely
connected to it.  Through Tradition, 'the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship
perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she
believes.'  'The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving
presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice
and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer.'"

The Old Covenant Church also believed in a Sacred Oral Tradition; that Tradition
is recorded in the Jewish Mishnah.
Question: Which came first, the written sacred text of the Bible or the Oral
Tradition?
Answer: In both the Old and New Testaments, the Oral Sacred Tradition came
first.  For example, during the earliest years of the New Covenant people there
was only the Old Testament and the teachings of Christ that were
taught orally to His Apostles and disciples'the written revelation we call the New
Testament would be recorded and passed on over a period of several years after
Christ's Ascension.  However, one cannot receive one form of divine revelation
and ignore the other.  It is as wrong for Catholics to focus on "Tradition alone" as
it is for our Protestant brothers and sisters to focus on "Scripture alone".  The
Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "'Sacred Tradition and Sacred
Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. 
For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in
some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.'* Each of them
makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to
remain with his own 'always, to the close of the age.**'" CCC#80 [with quotes
from *Dei Verbum 9 and **Matthew 28:20].

Question: What is the Catholic Church's stand on private interpretation of

Sacred Scripture?
Answer: The Church strongly warns against private interpretation of the Bible. 
Our Protestant brothers and sisters teach that the Holy Spirit can guide each
individual who reads the Scriptures to a private but legitimate interpretation of the
meaning of the text as God intended the text to relate to that individual.  While
the Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit must indeed guide us in the
interpretation of Scripture, the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit guides
us "within the Living Tradition of the Church", otherwise as imperfect human
beings it is too likely, and so dangerous, that we can and will manipulate the text
to say whatever we decide it should say to us'just as Adam and Eve usurped
God's sovereignty in the Fall ["Does He really means that we will we really die if
we eat of this fruit?'Surely not!"].  This means for us as Catholics that the
interpretation of Bible passages must not contradict other Bible passages nor
must it contradict the deposit of knowledge passed down to us in our Oral
Tradition. CCC# 113: "Read the Scripture within 'the living Tradition of the whole
Church."  The Catechism of the Catholic Church #109-114 sets out some very
important guidelines for the study of Sacred Scripture. If you have a Catechism
please read those passages.   [Note: In this study the initials CCC indicate that a
quotation is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church].

Question: Can you give some examples of the dangers of interpreting Scripture

"outside" of the Living Tradition of the Church?
Answer:  The dogma of the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary and the dogma
of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist are two examples.  The word
"dogma" means "truth" and as it is used in Catholic theology concerns all the
truths that the Catholic Church teaches to have been revealed by God as the
doctrine [teaching] of salvation which defines us as the Roman Catholic Church. 
For nearly 2,000 years these truths were taught consistently in the Church from
the time of the Apostles.  Today, sadly, many Christians falling under the
influence of the secular world doubt or deny these truths.
Note: in this study we will use the dated year notations BC and AD.  AD, Anno
Domini, or "in the year of the Lord" specifies dates from the birth of Jesus to the
present time. This designation was the invention of Dionysius Exiguus [Dennis
the Short] the Abbot of Rome who lived in the 6th century AD.  The designation
BC determines dates "before Christ" and was introduced in the 17 th century. 
Prior to Dennis the Short's designation of AD for dating years from the birth of
Christ, the Church usually counted the years from the first Olympiad in 776BC,
dating events as occurring during the first, second, third or fourth year of a
specific Olympiad.

Next lesson we will begin our study of the first period in Salvation History:
Biblical Period #1: CREATION/HISTORY OF THE EARLY WORLD

The Bible readings for next lesson:

1.  Creation Genesis 1:1-2:4
2.  Adam and Eve/ the First Covenant Genesis 2:5- 25
3.  The Fall of Man Genesis 3:1-24
4.  The Protoevangelium Genesis 3:8-24
5.  Cain and Abel Genesis 4:1-16
6.  Birth of Seth Genesis 4:25-26
7.  The Toledoth of Adam Genesis 5:1-32
8.  The Flood Genesis 6:1-8:15
9.  The Second Covenant/ Noah Genesis 8:15-
9:19
10.The Tower of Babel Genesis 9:20-
11:9

Year?                                                   Year ?                          Year?                   

c. 2000BC

Creation: ---------------------------------The Flood----------Tower of

Babel---------------------
Adam--------------10 generations-------Noah--Shem---------10
generations--------Abraham-

REFERENCES [and recommended reading]:

1. Making Senses Out of Scripture: Reading the Bible as the First Christians Did,
Mark Shea [Basilica Press, 1999].
2. "The Council That Wasn't", Steve Ray, This Rock Magazine, September 2004.
 3. Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating [Ignatius Press, 1988].
4. The Origin of the Bible, ed. By Philip Comfort [Tyndale House, 1992].
5. The Canon of Scripture, F. Bruce [InterVarsity Press, 1988].
6. The New Webster Dictionary of the English Language [Grolier, New York, 1969].
7. Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin [William Morrow Publishers, 1991].
8. New Jerusalem Bible [Doubleday, 1985].
9. Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum: from the documents of
Vatican II [Pauline Books, 1965].
10. The Ancient Near East, edited by William H. McNeill and Jean W.
Sedlar, [Oxford University Press, 1968].
11. Catechism of the Catholic Church,[Liguori Publications, 1992].
12. Walking the Bible, Bruce Felier, [Perennial, 2001].
13. Introduction to Christianity, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI),
[Ignatius Press, 1990].

Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2008 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.