Bible Neophyte wants to know what is a good order to read?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Donna_P
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Donna_P

Guest
Hello!

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read the Bible. I think it is becuase of a perception of not understanding it. Anyway - I do now posses the Catholic Answers Bible (NAB).
  1. Is there a good way to approach reading the Bible? I know Jeff Cavins through OSV had said some books to read in a particular way. any thoughts?
  2. I get bogged down with all of the notes. Do you tend to just read the Bible and at a re-reading go through the notes?
 
I read the Bible, cover-to-cover, twice, years ago.

That familiarized me with the Bible enough to study “Bible typology,” which is the real way to understand the Bible.

This is an example I like to give, to introduce folks to Bible typology: When Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that He looks like a cadaver in a tomb, and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, you are looking at a “word picture” of dead Jesus’ actual body being served as food – the Real Presence in the Eucharist!

Another one: When God tells the Satan serpent in Genesis three, “He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel,” that is a “word picture” of the cross piercing the dust at SKULL Place (get it?) while a nail pierces Jesus’ FEET (get it?).

As far as I know, there are no good books on Bible typology, from the Catholic perspective. Most books are confused, on the subject.

It has taken me a good thirty years to learn Bible typology.

Discuss it here, and I will teach you!
 
Donna,

I’m so glad that you feel a desire to read the bible, that is a great grace!

I think that Jeff Cavin’s breakdown is very helpful – and he, along with Scott Hahn focus on the covenant theology. Jeff Cavins’ courses help you get a feel for the historical timeline, and how all the books of the bible fit together in time. It’s great (but the full course is expensive!)

I just picked up a new book by Peter Kreeft entitled “You Can Understand the Bible: A Practical Guide to each Book of the Bible”.
It is very good as an introduction to each book! I have really been enjoying it. It is just a taste – not serious biblical scholarship or anything – its perfect for beginnners.

God Bless you!
 
Donna P:
Hello!

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read the Bible. I think it is becuase of a perception of not understanding it. Anyway - I do now posses the Catholic Answers Bible (NAB).
  1. Is there a good way to approach reading the Bible? I know Jeff Cavins through OSV had said some books to read in a particular way. any thoughts?
  2. I get bogged down with all of the notes. Do you tend to just read the Bible and at a re-reading go through the notes?
Click to expand...
Hi Donna-

There are many ways you can approach reading the Bible from a Catholic perspective. As Biblereader says, typology is one important facet of understandng the Scriptures. For this I’d recommend “Making Senses Out Of Scripture” by Mark Shea. On the other hand, you may also benefit from getting “the big picture” of salvaion history in the Scriptures from Jeff Cavins program or the one he put together with Scott Hahn called “Our Father’s Plan.”

For more recommendations, I humbly suggest you visit my website, linked below (the Bible study posted there hs not been updated this week for next Sunday’s readings because I’m on vacation, but if you PM me with your e-mail, I can send it to you).
 
Give us a link to this typology please…Or even a Church Official referring to it.
 
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a3.htm

The senses of Scripture

115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.

116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal."83

117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.

**
  1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.84
    **
  2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written “for our instruction”.85
  3. The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, “leading”). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.86
 
Donna P:
I get bogged down with all of the notes. Do you tend to just read the Bible and at a re-reading go through the notes?
Click to expand...
I prefer to read a chapter or section through without looking at the notes. Then when I hit a good stopping point, I go back to read the notes I skipped. I find that if I try to read each note as I come upon it, it breaks up the flow too much. At the same time, I don’t want to skip them entirely.

–Bill
 
40.png
twiztedseraph:
Give us a link to this typology please…Or even a Church Official referring to it.
Click to expand...
If I can post a Church official referring to it, skeptic, will you be convinced of anything? Or, will you only care about your question if the answer favors a prejudice?

I.e., do you care about truth, or a prejudice?
 
If I can post a Church official referring to it, skeptic, will you be convinced of anything? Or, will you only care about your question if the answer favors a prejudice?
Click to expand...
I.e., do you care about truth, or a prejudice?
Click to expand...
I care about the constant teaching of God’s true Church.
 
40.png
twiztedseraph:
I care about the constant teaching of God’s true Church.
Click to expand...
You did not actually answer my question, you who cares about the constant teaching of God’s true Church.

If I can post a Church official referring to it, will you be convinced of anything? Or, will you only care about your question if the answer favors a prejudice?

Typically, when a challenge is worded the way yours was…

Give us a link to this typology please…Or even a Church Official referring to it.

…one gathers that you are not seeking knowledge, but have already pre-judged the subject of the comment, typology, to be “spooky nonsense.”

I hope that when I answer your challenge, you answer, “Wow! Look at that! You’re right! I’m suddenly so interested in typology that I’m going to put energy into learning it!”

From Dei Verbum…
  1. …The plan of salvation foretold by the sacred authors, recounted and explained by them, is found as the true word of God in the books of the Old Testament: these books, therefore, written under divine inspiration, remain permanently valuable. “For all that was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).
  2. The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy (see Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10), and to indicate its meaning through various types (see 1 Cor. 10:12). Now the books of the Old Testament, in accordance with the state of mankind before the time of salvation established by Christ, reveal to all men the knowledge of God and of man and the ways in which God, just and merciful, deals with men. These books, though they also contain some things which are incomplete and temporary, nevertheless show us true divine pedagogy. (1) These same books, then, give expression to a lively sense of God, contain a store of sublime teachings about God, sound wisdom about human life, and a wonderful treasury of prayers, and in them the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way. Christians should receive them with reverence.
  3. God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New. (2) For, though Christ established the new covenant in His blood (see Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25), still the books of the Old Testament with all their parts, caught up into the proclamation of the Gospel, (3) acquire and show forth their full meaning in the New Testament (see Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:27; Rom. 16:25-26; 2 Cor. 14:16) and in turn shed light on it and explain it.
More in the next post.
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church…

[128](javascript:openWindow(‘cr/128.htm’)😉 The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.

[129](javascript:openWindow(‘cr/129.htm’)😉 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such** typological** reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself. Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.
130 **Typology **indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when “God [will] be everything to everyone.” Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God’s plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages.
 
Personally I spend most of my time on the books I enjoy and the books I get the most out of (such as the Gospel of John). I don’t read the book of Leviticus, for example. It probably would be better to begin by reading one of the Gospels carefully first, rather that going and reading the Bible straight through. These are just my two cents, though of course everyone is different.
 
If you show me Church teaching on it I will follow what that teaching is. Thats it, if it is one of those things left to private judgement ofcourse I’d wanna know more.

I take slight offense to you prejudging me, merely because I want to make sure it is permissible to do so by the One True Church. I said nothing good or bad about it, or even made a personal opinion on it as I base my opinions on what the Church teaches.
 
40.png
twiztedseraph:
If you show me Church teaching on it I will follow what that teaching is. Thats it, if it is one of those things left to private judgement ofcourse I’d wanna know more.

I take slight offense to you prejudging me, merely because I want to make sure it is permissible to do so by the One True Church. I said nothing good or bad about it, or even made a personal opinion on it as I base my opinions on what the Church teaches.
Click to expand...
Please forgive my spirited defense of my position. There was a compliment built into the way I addressed you – I believed that you were tough enough to enable me to get away with it. Generally, I abandon my caustic approach only where I think that the cautic approach will alienate a soul.

Beware of only believing about the Bible that which is taught OUTSIDE OF the Bible.

(a) The Bible itself is “Church teaching,” an expression of the Magisterium.

(b) The Bible isn’t somehow “crippled,” so that it is an inferior document, more immune to comprehension than, say, Humanae Vitae or Dei Verbum. God passed Hebrew 101, Geek 101 and Hermaneutics with an A+.

(c) If we restrict ourselves from comprehending and believing those things for which the Church is the sole authorized interpreter, then since the Church is the sole authorized interpreter of every expression of the Magisterium, we can never comprehend and believe ANYTHING the Magisterium articulates!

This is not some ridiculous tautology. I frequently disagree with others’ interps of Councilior declarations. The Apologists who run this site do, to.

For some reason, you pick on the Bible.

(d) As my Aunt, who used to teach theology in the seminary in Washington, D.C., says, “If you restrict yourself to studying only those verses in the Bible about which the Church has issued express written rulings, you’ll be done in about half an hour.”

So, be my guest, friend: Ignore almost all of the Bible.
 
BibleReader,

This
40.png
BibleReader:
So, be my guest, friend: Ignore almost all of the Bible.
Click to expand...
seemed uncalled for!

No one disputes that there are matters of legitimate speculation and interpretation of BOTH scripture and other magisterial pronouncements. However it seems to me that, at least sometimes, certain magisterial pronouncements do not admit of contrary interpretation (and weren’t intended to to). Scripture, on the other hand, does often admit of contrary interpretation due to some of the literary forms.

Regardless, any interpretation of scripture or of other teachings of the church must be consistent.

See Dei Verbum 12:
But, since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written, no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living tradition of the whole Church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory study the judgment of the Church may mature. For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God.
Click to expand...
So by all means interpret away!😉
40.png
BibleReader:
This is an example I like to give, to introduce folks to Bible typology: When Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that He looks like a cadaver in a tomb, and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, you are looking at a “word picture” of dead Jesus’ actual body being served as food – the Real Presence in the Eucharist!
Click to expand...
That is awesome, by the way. Of course, I would add that this “typoligical word picture” is just that “a picture” and that we, of course, receive the living Jesus’ body in the eucharist. That completes it and is consistent with the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist. We don’t want any confusion on that point.

Pax,
VC

P.S. Keep us posted when your manuscript on typology is finished.
 
40.png
BibleReader:
Typology]]
Click to expand...
Perhaps this subject would be worthy of its own thread and when others who know about it see it they could participate also-- just a thought.
 
Typology sounds very interesting. Ofcourse we’re used to the more clich’e subjects such as Moses prefiguring Jesus, Circumscision prefiguring Baptism and so on.

I didn’t mean to say I’ll only study the parts of the bible the Church defines, that would be near lunacy. I will study the bible whole heartedly. I just felt (and I do hope you’ll forgive me for saying this.) That seeing hidden meanings and such was a bit weird. I only experienced it from those Sola Scriptura nuts…

Please keep posting as its an interesting subject
 
Donna, this is just me and my own leanings about Bible study, however, I would suggest that prior to picking up the Bible and reading it first read “Whose Bible is it?” by Jaroslav Pelikan, published by Viking Press. It is more of a look at the historical development of the scripture(s) but I think it’s a good starting point because it may inspire an intrest in the Bible that you didn’t know you had. But if you do read this book, keep a pen and paper handy, there are terms you will need to write down and remember or just have to look up its meaning. But this is my recommendation on how you should start.
 
Verbum Caro:
Donna,

I’m so glad that you feel a desire to read the bible, that is a great grace!

I think that Jeff Cavin’s breakdown is very helpful – and he, along with Scott Hahn focus on the covenant theology. Jeff Cavins’ courses help you get a feel for the historical timeline, and how all the books of the bible fit together in time. It’s great (but the full course is expensive!)

I just picked up a new book by Peter Kreeft entitled “You Can Understand the Bible: A Practical Guide to each Book of the Bible”.
It is very good as an introduction to each book! I have really been enjoying it. It is just a taste – not serious biblical scholarship or anything – its perfect for beginnners.

God Bless you!
Click to expand...
I read this book by Kreeft when it was two separate books published by Servant. I regret giving them away and was delighted to find out Ignatius is republishing it under one cover. Kreeft’s words take my breath away. You can download lots of Kreeft lectures in MP3 format from Peter Kreeft.com and also a number of Kreeft lectures from Veritas.org. Here is a list of lectures by Peter Kreeft available for free MP3 download from Veritas:

Islam and Christianity (Louisiana State University, 2005-03-12)
Religion and Public Education? (Louisiana St Univ, 2005-03-11)
Pain, Suffering, and Evil (Louisiana St University, 2005-03-11)
Catholicism and Evangelicalism (Louisiana St Univ, 2005-03-12)
Moral Absolutes (Texas A & M, 1995-02-17)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top