RELIGIONFLASHBACK

Scripture, The Old Testament, and the timeline to Jesus

HEBREW SCRIPTURE or THE OLD TESTAMENT

- The Pentateuch = The Torah or Law - Historical Books - Wisdom Books - Prophetic Books

CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE or THE NEW TESTAMENT

- Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) - Acts of the Apostles (Written by Luke) - Epistles (or Letters, written mostly by Paul) - Revelation (Written by John)

• The Old Testament contains stories of SPIRITUAL TRUTH, not literal facts.

• The first book, Genesis, includes the Creation Stories- Creation of the World- Adam & Eve- Noah

- Spiritual truth – God gave us Life, and the World; we should put our faith in God

• Adam and Eve’s sin was PRIDE – They arrogantly ignored God’s command. - Original Sin = Human beings push God away by ignoring God’s laws and choosing to do wrong

• The stories of Abraham, Isaac, Esau & Jacob (who later becomes Israel), and Joseph and his brothers – tell of strong faith, deceptions, family, and personal redemption.

• The story of Joseph also takes us out of the land promised to Abraham and into Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved.

FYI: They become the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Hmmm… I wonder what the number 12 means…

• Moses shows the Power of God working through his faith (burning bush, plagues, parting of the sea…), takes the Israelites out of Egypt, gets fed up with the sinfulness of the people, and acquires the Ten Commandments.

Moses brings the Israelites all the way back to the Promised Land (Canaan)

• The book of Judges provides an account of the tribes of Israel in the Promised Land and their cycles of sin, captivity and repentance.

* The Book of Ruth follows Judges, and is a short but powerful story of faith and loyalty. Ruth is also part of the Family Tree of Jesus.

• King David, is chosen to replace King Saul. While not perfect, David shows great strength and determination (remember his battle with Goliath?)

• King Solomon (David’s son) is blessed with great wisdom (would he really have cut that baby in half?)

• The Prophets continue biblical history, with warnings and predictions.

• Did the Prophets have ESP (Extrasensory Perception)? Nope!

• Prophets like Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah were God’s spokesmen; they saw how the people were disobeying God’s laws and knew what such actions could lead to.

• They also gave hope for salvation by sending God’s message that He (God) would send a Savior. (read Isaiah carefully!)

^ Could this “voice” be John the Baptist?

Sound like anybody you know?

A good thing to remember…

• The last great Prophet is known as the Bridge between the Old and New Testaments.

• John the Baptist brings us directly to Jesus after telling the people to “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

• So, how do we come to have the Old Testament today if the stories were handed down through oral tradition? (Remember, the ancient people had little written language)

• From about 587 BC to 537 BC, the Israelites were in exile (expelled and barred from their own land) in Babylon

• The Babylonian king had attacked the holy city of Jerusalem, where the sacred Temple was.

• When one group of exiles found out that the Temple in their homeland had been destroyed, the prophet Ezekiel told them about God’s plan to bring them back to Jerusalem.

• During this time, many of the Hebrew Scriptures were written down and organized.

• Writing their stories helped the Jewish people preserve their culture and pass down their faith, even while they were in exile.

• The Dead Sea are the work of a Jewish population that inhabited Qumran (near Jerusalem in Israel) until Roman troops destroyed the settlement.• They are believed to have been written by a Jewish sect called Essenes

between 150 B.C. and 70 A.D. (Jesus was born between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.)

• The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in the West Bank of the Jordan River between 1946 and 1956 by young shepherds.

• The Dead Sea Scrolls enhance our knowledge of both Judaism and Christianity. They show Christianity to be rooted in Judaism and have been called the evolutionary link between the two.

• After 50 or so years in exile, the Jewish people were allowed to return to Jerusalem.

• They began to rebuild the Temple under King Herod the Great (called “Great” because he was king when the Temple was rebuilt)

• Herod was king when Jesus was born (Remember him? Not such a “great” guy after all!)

• This post-exile world of Jewish oppression is the world in which Jesus grew up. Could this have shaped his mission?