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Week 5 Consuming the WordThe Bond That Holds the Bible Together - Part 1

To understand the Bible, it is critically important to understand what the culture was like surrounding the authors that were picked by God to write down the documents that would become the canon of Sacred Scripture. Once again, we are pursuing what those first century Christians understood about the word “testament”. That word in our generation holds our Bible together in certain ways…the most obvious being how the Bible is divided, Old Testament and the New Testament. But what was the ancient understanding of the word “testament?” What we will find out today is “testament” was understood more as our word “covenant”, it was the very air the ancient world breathed and the ground they walked on. Scott made the connection of the importance of that word way back in high school, Jackie and I came to that understanding about 15 years ago. There are some in this class today that are just discovering this in the last couple of weeks. The ancient understanding of covenant is the key to understanding what holds the entire Bible together.

The word in the original Hebrew of the Old Covenant is “berit.” Scott tells us it is one of the most meaningful words in Hebrew, but one of the most untranslatable words in Latin, Greek, and English. A good understanding in English is a sacred family bond. But that is three words in English, all with depth of meaning, for the one Hebrew word, berit. Whenever we read the words testament or covenant in the

Bible, Old or New Testament, we need to think of those three words, sacred…and family…and bond. Then Scott adds a fourth dimension to the word berit, and that

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is law. Think of marriage, it contains all of those understandings; it is legal with a license that has to be filed with the county you are married in; it is sacred with liturgy and holy vows shared in front of God and witnesses; it is a lifelong bond with rings exchanged representing and unending circle of life; and it binds together two families and creates a brand new one. That is the closest we can come to berit in our generation. Scott narrowed it down further to three English words, life, law, and liturgy. It is biological and theological…it is both physical and spiritual and always…always involving sacrifice. Any marriage that lasts a lifetime involves all kinds of sacrifice. Think of how many English words we have just now used to describe all the ancient Hebrews understood in the one-word berit.

If you try and translate it to Latin you get at least three Latin words, testamentum, pactum, and foedus, Scott called them three leaky buckets. None of the three give the full meaning of berit. Those translate in English to testament, pact, and treaty

or agreement, three more leaky buckets. Scott quotes the Italians by saying, “every translator is a traitor.” Greek gets closer with the one word, diatheke, but once again, not fully there. The Latin word testamentum becomes the predominant word chosen by translators, not pactum or foedus, giving us the English word testament which we in turn used to name the two major divisions of the Bible. Why testament, it comes the closest to kindship or family, can anyone guess why? Think of it this way, last will and testament. What does than usually deal with in a legal sense…inheritance. The last will and testament passes down within the extended family, all that the next generation would receive. In this day and age, it is all

about stuff…money, land, houses, family heirlooms, so on and so forth. In ancient times it wasn’t just money and land and stuff. Think about our spiritual inheritance that we receive from previous generations. You could call the Old

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Testament the Last Will and Old Testament, and the New Testament, the Last Will and New Testament. Everything you read in both of those testaments becomes ours in this generation. Here are a couple of examples.

Genesis 49:1–27 (RSV2CE) 1 Then Jacob called his sons, and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in days to come. 2 Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father. 3 Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in

pride and pre-eminent in power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—you went up to my couch! 5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. 6 O my soul, come not into their council; O my spirit, be not joined to their company; for in their anger they slay men, and

in their wantonness they hamstring oxen. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he lurked as a lion, and as a lioness; who dares rouse him up? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes; 12 his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. 14 Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds; 15 he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a slave at forced labor. 16 Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward. 18 I wait for your salvation, O Lord. 19 Raiders shall

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raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. 20 Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties. 21 Naphtali is a deer let loose, that bears comely fawns. 22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers fiercely attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him sorely; 24 yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel), 25 by the God of your father who will help you, by God Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills; may they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was separate from his brothers. 27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Jacob renews the family covenant with his twelve sons, but Moses renews the covenant with the twelve tribes of Israel. Pay close attention to the blessings of the covenant, and then the difficulties that await them if they break the covenant.

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Deuteronomy 33:1–29 (RSV2CE) 1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2

He said, “The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran, he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand. 3 Yes, he loved his people; all those consecrated to him were in his hand; so they followed in your steps, receiving direction from you, 4 when Moses commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob. 5 Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. 6 “Let Reuben live, and not die, nor let his men be few.” 7 And this he said of Judah: “Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.” 8 And of Levi he said, “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you strove at the waters of Meribah; 9 who said of his father and mother, ‘I regard them not’; he disowned his brothers, and ignored his children. For they observed your word, and kept your covenant. 10 They shall teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you, and whole burnt offering upon your altar. 11 Bless, O Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, that they rise not again.” 12 Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the Lord, he dwells in safety by him; he encompasses him all the day long, and makes his dwelling between his shoulders.” 13 And of Joseph he said, “Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath, 14 with the choicest fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months, 15 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills, 16 with the best gifts of the earth and its fulness, and the favor of him that dwelt in the bush. Let these come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the

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head of him that is prince among his brothers. 17 His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth; such are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.” 18 And of Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents. 19 They shall call peoples to their mountain; there they offer right sacrifices; for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.” 20 And of Gad he said, “Blessed be he who enlarges Gad! Gad lurks like a lion, he tears the arm, and the crown of the head. 21 He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander’s portion was reserved; and he came to the heads of the people, with Israel he executed the commands and just decrees of the Lord.” 22 And of Dan he said, “Dan is a lion’s whelp, that leaps forth from Bashan.” 23 And of Naphtali he said, “O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the lake and the south.” 24 And of Asher he said, “Blessed above sons be Asher; let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. 25 Your bars shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so shall your strength be. 26 “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, and in his majesty through the skies. 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you, and said, Destroy. 28 So Israel dwelt in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and wine; yes, his heavens drop down dew. 29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you; and you shall tread upon their high places.”

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After Moses, Joshua renewed the covenant, the last will and testament with the next generation…and on and on and on. So how did we lose the sense of berit all these generations later. A good portion of the problem is how secularized our understanding of covenant has become in modern times. We can see glimpses of covenant in the courtrooms of today. Judges where long robes even in courtroom

today, witnesses take an oath, a sacramentum, to tell the truth, with left hand on the Bible and the right hand raised. That right hand used to bear the covenant scar where blood was exchanged between covenant tribes, making them one tribe, one family. The Latin language is still a big part of our legal system, habeas corpus and

so on. As Catholics we have seven sacraments that bind us to each other and to God, as a large extended family, especially through the blood of the new and eternal covenant every time we celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass.

Sadly, covenant in this day and age has lost almost all its meaning. We understand contract very well, but not covenant. Scott boldly declares covenant understanding in ancient times differed greatly from a contract to the same degree that marriage differs from prostitution…that ought to get your attention. You exchange goods and services with a contract, you exchange life with a sacred covenant. In a contract this is yours, in a covenant, I am yours. That is a huge difference. Life, liturgy, and law…that is the ancient air they breathed. The modern world has chipped away at all three. Life is attacked every day in our culture with abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. Liturgy is marginalized and even laughed at by our secular society. And now law is under attack, with the disgracing of many of our police officers recently in the news. Covenant life needs a very serious renewal, starting with Catholics and all our Christian brothers and sisters.

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The Bible gives us a clear picture of the progression of covenant life. God in the Old Testament was the adoptive father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was their shepherd and became known as the God of our Fathers…the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the New and Eternal Covenant, the Son of the Father enters into the family of God, and in our midst, He is revealed as the Lamb of God, not just the shepherd of His people. Suddenly God is Our Father, who art in heaven…He becomes our Father God instead of the God of our Fathers. In this New Covenant, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, so that we could become Sons and Daughters of God. Life, liturgy and law, that needs to become the very air we breathe, every day for the rest of our lives on this earth.

When you begin to realize what is going on here with the revelation of covenant, the Bible, including the Old Testament comes alive. Let me give you one more example before we finish class today. The passage tells us of the first recorded blood covenant between men, Abraham and Abimelech.

Genesis 21:22–34 (RSV2CE) 22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do; 23 now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25 When Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

And now…look what happens right after that…

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Genesis 22:5–14 (RSV2CE) 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only-begotten son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”