Advice on Bible study topics

[CutlerB]

Dear community,

It’s Bible Study time again today in our Anglican study group. Our priest isn’t there today and he asked me to take over the group. “I would love to”, I thought.

The book we’re studying is Saint John’s Gospel and we have done chapters 1-4 and parts of 5 already, about which I posted in another thread recently. I thought that you might have some ideas on which points I could make or at least direct discussion to in the study today.

Would there be anything of interest in chapter 5, except for Jesus healing on the sabbath, or do you think we should go right into chapter 6 and the Eucharist? If it’s the latter, do you think there are certain points I should bring in, in terms of the Catholic understanding?

And there’s one more thing: I would bet that one person in the group (mentioned in another thread) would bring up the cannibalism charge. I have read the Catholic Answers reply to this, but I find it very unsatisfactory. Any help on that?

Thanks and God bless you all.

 

[RPRPsych]

Dear community,

It’s Bible Study time again today in our Anglican study group. Our priest isn’t there today and he asked me to take over the group. “I would love to”, I thought.

The book we’re studying is Saint John’s Gospel and we have done chapters 1-4 and parts of 5 already, about which I posted in another thread recently. I thought that you might have some ideas on which points I could make or at least direct discussion to in the study today.

Would there be anything of interest in chapter 5, except for Jesus healing on the sabbath, or do you think we should go right into chapter 6 and the Eucharist? If it’s the latter, do you think there are certain points I should bring in, in terms of the Catholic understanding?

And there’s one more thing: I would bet that one person in the group (mentioned in another thread) would bring up the cannibalism charge. I have read the Catholic Answers reply to this, but I find it very unsatisfactory. Any help on that?

Thanks and God bless you all.

Sounds interesting!

Well, in Chapter 5, there’s also Christ’s words about “(You) search the Scriptures…”, which can be used as a springboard for a discussion about how the OT testifies to Christ - for example, there’s already an allusion to Isaiah 53 in John 1. And you could more specifically discuss how Moses testified to Christ - not only the serpent in the desert, but also Deuteronomy 18: 15-18.

I’ll leave the issue of transsubstantiation to wiser heads than mine, though.

 

[CutlerB]

Sounds interesting!

Well, in Chapter 5, there’s also Christ’s words about “(You) search the Scriptures…”, which can be used as a springboard for a discussion about how the OT testifies to Christ - for example, there’s already an allusion to Isaiah 53 in John 1. And you could more specifically discuss how Moses testified to Christ - not only the serpent in the desert, but also Deuteronomy 18: 15-18.

I’ll leave the issue of transsubstantiation to wiser heads than mine, though.

Good idea. I need to say a few things on that:

“You search the Scriptures” — I will certainly bear the OT in mind. It’s more of a “what do we want to look at” type of Study, so it may not work out.

Moses testimony to Christ — That one caused huge discussions last time. One guy said “Well, what part of Moses refers undoubtably to Christ?” Meaning that anyone could claim to be the one written about by Moses. It turned into a ping-pong between me and him and got fairly heated and me all worked up. For example, Deuteronomy 18:15-19 is claimed by Muslims for Mohammed. It doesn’t obviously apply to Christ.

Transsubstantiation — Biggie. Reeeal biggie. I wouldn’t feel comfortable or even qualified to go into it deeply, but could “prove” it from Jesus’ words.

 

[RPRPsych]

Moses testimony to Christ — That one caused huge discussions last time. One guy said “Well, what part of Moses refers undoubtably to Christ?” Meaning that anyone could claim to be the one written about by Moses. It turned into a ping-pong between me and him and got fairly heated and me all worked up. For example, Deuteronomy 18:15-19 is claimed by Muslims for Mohammed. It doesn’t obviously apply to Christ.

Mohammed?? Wow, that’s a doozy. I hadn’t heard that one, but it’s obviously false: God says he will raise up a Prophet from among his people, not from among the Ishmaelites, who were not the people of the Old Covenant.

Well, there are a few others:

In Exodus, God refers to himself as “I AM THAT I AM”, a title that Christ uses for Himself in John 8. (Of course, you could save that for when John 8 comes up…)

In Deuteronomy 28 (I think it’s 28:66; I’m typing from memory here!), Moses prophesies to the Jews that “Your life will hang before your very eyes”. Catholic and Orthodox tradition have both seen this as a reference to the Crucifixion of Christ, who said (again, in John 14:6) that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And if I may “cheat” a little…
Ancient tradition attributed the authorship of the Book of Job to Moses. If that is so (modern scholars disagree and date Job to the post-Exilic period, but a strong argument can be made for an earlier date), then Job 19:25-26 is a reference to Christ the Redeemer.

 

[NotWorthy]

Dear community,

It’s Bible Study time again today in our Anglican study group. Our priest isn’t there today and he asked me to take over the group. “I would love to”, I thought.

The book we’re studying is Saint John’s Gospel and we have done chapters 1-4 and parts of 5 already, about which I posted in another thread recently. I thought that you might have some ideas on which points I could make or at least direct discussion to in the study today.

Would there be anything of interest in chapter 5, except for Jesus healing on the sabbath, or do you think we should go right into chapter 6 and the Eucharist? If it’s the latter, do you think there are certain points I should bring in, in terms of the Catholic understanding?

And there’s one more thing: I would bet that one person in the group (mentioned in another thread) would bring up the cannibalism charge. I have read the Catholic Answers reply to this, but I find it very unsatisfactory. Any help on that?

Thanks and God bless you all.

I hope I’m not jumping in too late, but peruse this lesson on John chapter 5… you might find a few pearls hidden within. agapebiblestudy.com/John_Gospel/Chapter%205.htm

 

[CutlerB]

Mohammed?? Wow, that’s a doozy. I hadn’t heard that one, but it’s obviously false: God says he will raise up a Prophet from among his people, not from among the Ishmaelites, who were not the people of the Old Covenant.

Well, that’s precisely the reason it doesn’t work out for them! I don’t think it’s a common reference, but I heard it somewhere.

Well, there are a few others:

In Exodus, God refers to himself as “I AM THAT I AM”, a title that Christ uses for Himself in John 8. (Of course, you could save that for when John 8 comes up…)

In Deuteronomy 28 (I think it’s 28:66; I’m typing from memory here!), Moses prophesies to the Jews that “Your life will hang before your very eyes”. Catholic and Orthodox tradition have both seen this as a reference to the Crucifixion of Christ, who said (again, in John 14:6) that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And if I may “cheat” a little…
Ancient tradition attributed the authorship of the Book of Job to Moses. If that is so (modern scholars disagree and date Job to the post-Exilic period, but a strong argument can be made for an earlier date), then Job 19:25-26 is a reference to Christ the Redeemer.

It is Deuteronomy 28:66, good memory there! But I must say the prophetic interpretation seems very far off the mark to me. It says “thy life shall hang in doubt before you” and continues in a way I can’t make heads or tails of in that reading.

 

[CutlerB]

I hope I’m not jumping in too late, but peruse this lesson on John chapter 5… you might find a few pearls hidden within. agapebiblestudy.com/John_Gospel/Chapter%205.htm

It’s never too late!

I checked that site out before, it’s really good. The problem with John 5 was that this guy kept saying these things: “Jesus is presenting a false dichotomy twice. But I wouldn’t say Jesus said that, it was John who got it written down wrong. Moses never wrote anything that would make the Jews recognise Jesus when they saw him, so why is Jesus accusing them here?”

That’s the reason I wouldn’t want to get back into it. It turned into quite a battle between me and him and locked others out.

 

[peace2u2]

Dear community,

It’s Bible Study time again today in our Anglican study group. Our priest isn’t there today and he asked me to take over the group. “I would love to”, I thought.

The book we’re studying is Saint John’s Gospel and we have done chapters 1-4 and parts of 5 already, about which I posted in another thread recently. I thought that you might have some ideas on which points I could make or at least direct discussion to in the study today.

Would there be anything of interest in chapter 5, except for Jesus healing on the sabbath, or do you think we should go right into chapter 6 and the Eucharist? If it’s the latter, do you think there are certain points I should bring in, in terms of the Catholic understanding?

And there’s one more thing: I would bet that one person in the group (mentioned in another thread) would bring up the cannibalism charge. I have read the Catholic Answers reply to this, but I find it very unsatisfactory. Any help on that?

Thanks and God bless you all.

As far as understanding John’s Gospel on the Eucharist, I would just point out that Jesus does not contradict Himself so why would He say one thing and then mean something else.

Its always good to point out with regards to the Eucharist that our Christian faith (wherever you worship God; Protestant Church or Catholic Church) is that we walk by faith and not by sight. If we can believe in Jesus’ Resurrection, then why would the Eucharist be such a stumbling block? Is Jesus not God? Is anything impossible for God? Of course not!

After Jesus’ Resurrection, He appeared to Mary Magdalene and remember she didnot recognize Him at first. Also Jesus appeared to the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus under a different appearance and they recognized Him after. It is also in the Mass that Jesus appears to us under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine and Jesus did say to Thomas after Thomas recognized the Risen Jesus and said, My Lord and My God, Jesus said, “Blessed are they who believe and do not see.”

We know that God reveals Himself to us in many ways, nature, other people, things and objects, thru prayer and thru His Holy Word in Scripture. God did not abandon us and He gives us this gift of love, The Blessed Sacrament (Jesus) as a reminder of His great love for us in a tangible way.

As far as the cannibalism charge, people’s reaction today to His words are no different from those people 2,000 years ago who first heard Jesus speak those words. Besides cannibals eat what is dead. What we consume is Jesus who is very much alive. We receive His Spiritual Risen Body in the Eucharist which joins us to Him and actually helps transform us into the people He created us to be. We become part of Him, the mystical body of Christ. Cannabalism is violent and bloody. The Mass, the non-bloody re-presentation of the sacrifice of the Cross which is Jesus Christ, whose innocent blood was unjustly shed 2,000 years ago, is made available for us, His disciples under the appearance of bread and wine, but in a peaceful, nonviolent way.

Jesus meets us where we are broken in the Eucharist and heals us in a very beautiful and powerful way. Also point out that the Eucharist is the most hated place of the devil (the second most hated place of the devil is in the Confessional). The reason: because even the devil knows that you will be healed when you participate in those Sacraments and the devil does not want you to be healed and reconciled to God. But God so desires for you to be healed completely and to be with Him in eternity.

Peace.