I.
Overview of
CHS 1 D REVIEWER by Joanna Lopez
Bible - a faithful and inspired witness to God’s self-
revelation through Jesus Christ
Prophets - viewed Israel’s story as the central part of
what God was doing in all of humanity
- literary geniuses; crafted the Hebrew language
Bible: TaNaK (Hebrew) - OLD TESTAMENT.
Aramaic; Hebrew
 Ta – Torah “Law”; Israel’s five book foundation
story
o Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy
 Na – Nevi’im “Prophets”; Historical books that
tells Israel’s story from a prophet’s point of view;
poetic books
o Joshua, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
etc.
 K – Ketuvim “Writings”; Diverse collection of
poetic books, wisdom books, and more narrative
o Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ruth, Chronicles,
etc.
 The Jewish people believe that through these
literary works, God speaks to his people.
Other second temple writings- Maccabees, Tobit,
Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, etc.
- Greek; Hebrew
 Altogether, these texts tell an epic story about
how God is working through these people to
bring order and beauty out of the chaos of our
world. And it all builds up to a hope for a new
leader who would come and renew all creation
and then it concludes that this leader never
comes. And then a few centuries later, a Jewish
prophet comes on to the scene named, Jesus of
Nazareth.
Apostles - Jesus’
followers
- Composed
new literary
works about the life of Jesus called
“the good news” or the “gospel” (NEW
TESTAMENT)(Greek)
the Hebrew
Scripture and
- Formed an account called “Acts” to spread the
Jesus movement outside of Israel
 Catholic Church- Old testament, Deuterocanon, New
testament
 Orthodox churches – old testament, More second
temple writings, New testament
 Prognostic Christians (1500)- Old testament, New
testament
Worldview of the Hebrew Scripture
Israel’s worldview as expressed in Genesis 1-11
 Creation stories
 The Garden Story
 The Story of Abel and Cain
 The Story of Noah and the Flood
 The Story of the tower of Babel
- Their understanding with their relationship with God
and with relationship to each other
- Despite their limited perspective of the world, they were
able to say and testify that God is the creator of all things,
that God created us in His own image, for us to be
stewards of his creation.
 Stages in the formation of the Bible:
 Oral tradtion – stories of people’s encounter
with God. – preserved in the memory. –
orally transmitted. – remembered in
preaching
 Written tradition – put down in to writing
like tablets, skin of animals. – preserved in
scrolls
 Canonization – ‘canon’ means a norm or
standard used to measure something. – norm
of revealed truth
 Translation – OT : Hebrew – Greek.
Septuagint – 70 jewish scholars did the
translation
 Chapter & verse division – 13the CE –
Bishop Langton divided the Bible intro
chapters. 16th CE – numbering of all biblical
verses.
Possible approaches in the study of the Bible
 Textual-literary approach – wether the text
contains some literary devices or images.
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 Historical-sociological approach – makes
use of the text as a basic source for the
reconstruction and evaluation of the history
and society of Israel. – poses formidable
problems and approaches
 Theological-confessional approach – makes
use of the text as sources of the basic creeds
and confessions of faith of ancient Israel.
 Pastoral approach – undertaken in order to
respond to questions concerning temporary
meaning and applications.
The book of Genesis:
I. In the garden where humanity spiraled
downward and self-destruction and ends up in
the tower of Babylon where a rebellious
humanity is scattered by God
II. Zooms in and focuses on just one family
 Abraham- Isaac- Esau and Jacob- Jacob’s 12 sons
 Chapter 12 – Abraham (Abram) – God promised
Him to be a great nation
 “In you, all the families of the earth will be
blessed”
 God’s plan is to bless and rescue his rebellious
world through Abraham’s family
 Exodus: “The kingdom of priests” – to show the
other nations what God is like; fulfilled in the
messianic king
 God and Abraham’s Family (Genesis 12-50) 2-
25a ABRAHAM – Abraham betrays his wife
 Abraham sleeps with Hagar
 Covenant: God’s promise to Abraham – He will
be the father of many nations and a blessing to the
world
 Sign of the covenant: circumcision of all the boys
in the family; a symbol to remind them that the
fruitfulness of the family is a gift from God
25b-36 ISAAC AND JACOB (Deceiver) – Jacob steals
Esau’s birthright and blessing
– Jacob has four wives but only loves Rachel and causes
rivalries in the family.
Jacob’s final blessing: Jacob predicts that Judah will
become the tribe of Israel’s royal leaders and that one day
a king will come who will command obedience of the
nations and restore God’s blessing to the world.
Core features of Jewish beliefs and practice
 Monotheism- there is only one God- “Yahweh”
 Covenant and Election- there’s that promise
with God; they were chosen by God (Abraham,
his descendants, holy nation)
 Torah- “Law”; Pentateuch; their basic law;
first five books of the Hebrew scripture
 Temple and Zion- central to the Hebrew
people- people of Zion (Jerusalem)- where the
temple is, worship, where God is, physical
place with God.
 Synagogue- a place for them to gather and
come together as a community
 Hope for restoration- they long for the promise
of God; it is central to them that God will
restore them as a holy nation
Factors that may cause problems in the study of the
scripture
 Third party perspective - gap that separates
the modern reader of the text. – none of us
were involved in the original communication
process as either senders or receivers, speaker
or audience.
 Language barrier – 3rd party perspective is
exacerbated. – Biblical readings as originally
composed of modern language. – Mistakes in
translating. OT – Hebrew and Aramaic, NT –
Greek
 Cultural Barrier – 3rd party perspective is
reinforced. – cultural gap that exists between
the world of the Buble and the world today.
 Historical barrier – biblical history can
never be viewed as if it is a uniformly
developing process but rather with irregular
twists.
 Products of community composition and
revisions – most of the books of the Bible,
especially in the OT are products of a long
process of composing from an originally
orally proclaimed teaching. – ‘first’ Isaiah,
‘second’ Isaiah, & ‘third’ Isaiah.
 Multiple and differing texts of the same
document – whatever copy of the bible we
have is a translation of the original text.
 Sacredness of the text – its sacredness set it
apart from any other book and thus creating a
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problem in the attempt to seriously examine
the Bible.
CHS 1 D reviewer by Joanna Lopez
Elements in the Biblical study and interpretation:
 Biblical text – will always have to be read and
studied with respect to its own integrity as a text,
giving due consideration to historical.. etc.
 Context of interpretation – speaks of the
dynamic interplay of historical, cultural and
religious, political and economical factors which
determines the shape of the interpretative
agenda.
 Personal context of the interpreter – refers to the
person’s own set of perspectives and values and
framework.
Historical sketch of Israel:
 Prehistory - before how they come to
understand how they have come to be the people
of God
 Ancestral history - time of their ancestors; time
from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebecca
to Iso and Jacob (Israel) to Jacob Rachel and
Leah and their 12 sons to the time of Joseph
 Egyptian bondage - slavery of Egypt
 Exodus - Moses brought them out of Egypt
 Wilderness wanderings
 Entry to the promised land
 Statement in the land/judges/tribal
condederacy
 Monarchy period - Prophet: mouth pieces of
God that will denounce and advice the Kings
 Babylonian exile/ fall of the 2 kingdoms
 Restoration/ return to promised land
III. YWH: The liberating God
Voices of liberation
 From the Egyptian perspective, the exodus was
simply nonevent, unworthy of being considered
at all in their history.
 The experience of exodus, that of a people
being liberated from the bondage of slavery, has
become the guiding theme in the further
interpretation of the rest of Israel’s history with
their God Yahweh.
 Exodus is the event as far as Israel is concerned.
It is one single event which provided the
decisive mode for the revelation of the power
and intention.
 Exodus 1-15 : dramatic retelling being narrated
from the perspective of visitors.
Yahweh’s liberating action in the event of exodus
IV. C7: Voices of covenanting partners at
Sinai
carried out in light by God to the ancestors led by
Abraham
 That promise was the divine intention to provide
Abraham and his descendants a land to settle in
 The promise was placed in peril when people led
by joseph and later his father Jacob migrated to
Egypt
 Imprisonment when a new Pharaoh took place
 The events of exodus showed that the
promise of land is not just for the ordinary
settlement of the people.
 The land promised by god is actually to be
the scene of the forgoing relationship
between God and all the people and among
the people themselves.
Exodus – the Good news for Israel.
The covenant in Sinai is compaire to political treaties
 Pariety treaty – agreement between two equal
parties
 Suzerainty treaty – agreement between two
unequal parties
YWH
- considered as the benevolent and gracious lord
of the other while the people are considered as
the subjects of the benevolent lord and master.
- The divine lawgiver in which people have to
understand behind teachings and instructions.
Sinai Covenant
Covenant relationships
 Conditional – willingness to observe laws
 Unconditional – David and his house.
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The covenant in Sinai was sealed to serve as the
framework of a new relationship between God and
thepeople which is expected to redound to the benefit
and welfare of the people themselves.
Torah (Law)
- response to God’s saving action towards
Israel.
- Teachings or instructions
- Given for the good of the people, to serve as
basic source of guidance in the living of
community
- The teachings or instructions for the
necessary standards
- Is to be taught from generation to generation
- Through it, they became a people bound
together by a commitment to God
- Basic gift of God’s grace.
- Exclusive lordship of the lordgiver
- Key to life, a meaningful, liberating life in
relationship with Yahweh.
- 2 basic interconnected dimensions:
- Vertical concerns – involves provisions
that call and emphasize the need for the
people to render their exclusive loyalty,
allegiance and reliance. First of four of the
ten commandments. Foundation of the
other.
Horizontal concerns – laws given through
Mose, last five of the ten commandments.
Provisions in casuatic mode, physical
injuries, animals of neighbors, damages to
one’s property. Concrete expression of
affirmation of the former..
Particular bias of the law
- laws examined from their sociological
background can readily be appreciated for
their high ethical content.
- Bias favoring the weaker party in every
social transaction involving unequal parties.
- In here, the law is giving freedom to the
slaves.
- The law speaks in terms of providing greater
protection and access to the weaker
members of the society as well as affording
them the opportunities for advancement….
Lex Talionis
- The law of revenge.
- Turns out that the law is basically a law of
compensation for injuries.
“The recognition of such exclusive lordship of Yahweh
is the basic foundation upon which all other provisions
of the law are laid”
Apodictic laws – provisions expressing certain
nonnegotiable, unconditional terms with covenant.
Casuistic or case laws, or conditional laws
– “covenant code”
– Normally identified with the village-based legal
traditions of the people.
IV. C8 Voices of struggle and assurance in the
dessert
 Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the
wilderness before they cross Jordan river
 Israel’s wandering in the wilderness is from
Egypt to Sinai peninsula, to holy mountain.
 Kadesh – where they stayed much of their time
in the wilderness. – place where moses
experienced the most serious challenge
 Isralites failed to get permission from King of
Edom
 Liberating intentions of God for them
Theological experience of the wilderness
experience
 INTERNAL FACTOR – all manifestations of
weaknesses
 EXTERNAL FACTOR – threat and
harassments by territories they happen to pass
by
 Holy war – concept of Yahweh as a warrior
God.
 Ark of Covenant – plain box carried about by
levitical priests, considered ‘throne of the
invisible Yaweh’. – people are able to
experience an extension in the presence of
Yaweh in their midst.
 Tent of meeting – uniting and consolidating
symbol. – represents the manifestation of God to
his people on particular occasions.
 Ark of covenant and tent of meeting – two
sacred objects that served as the cultic centers of
the people. – enabled them to realize the saving
presence of Yaweh.
CHS 1 D reviewer by Joanna Lopez