In my last episode, I confessed that I had misidentified which translation of the Bible I was using. In this episode, I take a deep dive into various translations to figure out how I got confused about which version I was using.

Hello, this is Chris Young. Welcome to Episode 106 of Contemplating Life.<\p>

In my last episode, I confessed that I had misidentified which translation of the Bible I was using. So I thought I would take a deep dive into various translations to figure out how I got confused about which version I was using.<\p>

The Bible is a collection of works written over the course of centuries by various authors and compiled by various editors. Scholars believe that the earliest pieces of the Hebrew Scriptures, known to Christians as the Old Testament, were written between the tenth and eighth centuries BCE. The newest book of the Hebrew Scriptures is probably 2 Maccabees, written around 150-100 BCE. It is among the deuterocanonical or Apocrypha books that many Protestant Bibles don’t recognise. The book of Malachi is probably the newest book of the Old Testament recognised by Protestants. It was written around 300 BCE.<\p>

Some of Paul’s epistles, most notably 1 Thessalonians, date to around 52 CE. Mark was written around 60-70 CE. Matthew and Luke were written around 80-90 CE. John’s Gospel, as well as Revelation, were written around 90-100 CE.<\p>

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and portions of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic. The earliest manuscripts we have are fragments from John, dated around 100-150 CE. The earliest Old Testament manuscripts are from the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated from the third century BCE to the first century CE. Therefore, there is a gap of perhaps hundreds of years between when the books were actually written and our earliest available manuscripts.<\p>

According to tradition, Ptolemy II Philadelphus (the Greek Pharaoh of Egypt) sent 72 Hebrew translators—6 from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—from Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Hebrew Scriptures from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek for inclusion in his library.<\p>

This came to be known as the Greek Septuagint, which means the version of the 72. It is often designated by the Roman numeral LXX, which equals 70 rather than 72. Don’t ask me why. The New Testament was written in Greek, and references to the Hebrew Scriptures found in the New Testament in all likelihood referred to the Septuagint.<\p>

In 382 CE, Saint Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus I to translate the Gospels into Latin for the Catholic Church. On his own initiative, Jerome further translated much of the rest of the Bible. This version came to be known as the Latin Vulgate. The word “vulgate” means common or ordinary language. The word “vulgar” comes from the same root. Vulgar language is the language of the common people, not the language of the aristocracy. Because Latin was the common language of the Roman Empire, this Latin version was, in some respects, “vulgar” without the negative connotation of the word. Jerome used the Septuagint as well as some available Hebrew and Aramaic sources. It was considered the official version of the Western Church until the Council of Trent in the mid-1500s.<\p>

For centuries, most other translations were re-translated from the Latin Vulgate.<\p>

Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in the mid-1500s. It was based on a variety of sources, including the Septuagint and the Vulgate.<\p>

Another notable Medieval version is the famous King James Version (KJV) commissioned by King James of England in the early 1600s. While it was reasonably good for its time, translators were often more interested in producing beautifully flowing English rather than accurately translating the material. There was also a bias to whitewash anything that sounded critical of royalty.<\p>

Now let’s look at some modern translations.<\p>

Today, the Catholic Church in the United States uses a version called the New American Bible (NAB). It traces its origins to 1936, when Archbishop Edwin V. O’Hara, Chairman of the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, invited Catholic scripture scholars to begin work on a new English translation based on the Vulgate. This led to the formation of the Catholic Bible Association, which was created to work on this translation.<\p>

In 1943, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu, which means, “By the divine inspiration of the Spirit.” He encouraged the creation of translations of the Bible into the vernacular, that is, whatever your native language might be. Furthermore, he said that it should be based upon the earliest available Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts rather than a retranslation of the Latin Vulgate.<\p>

The Catholic Bible Association abandoned its previous efforts to translate from Latin and took up the challenge of creating a version based on the earliest Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts as ordered by the Pope. Their work was released in four volumes from 1952 to 1969. This version of the Old Testament became known as the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) Bible. <\p>

However, when it was eventually combined with a new translation of the New Testament, it became known as the New American Bible, published in 1970. It was mostly the work of Catholic scholars, but other non-Catholic scholars were included in the process. The hope was that calling it the New American Bible rather than CCD might encourage its use outside the Catholic Church.<\p>

The NAB Psalms were updated in 1981, and the New Testament was updated in 1986. Some sources have referred to this as the Revised New American Bible (RNAB), although I don’t think that was ever an official name for it.<\p>

The NAB is a translation used in the Roman Catholic Lectionary. The Lectionary is a book of Scripture readings and prayers that are used in the celebration of the Catholic Mass and other liturgies. As best I can determine, the 1986 update is currently used in the Lectionary.<\p>

The situation gets a little bit muddy along the way. The most recent version of the NAB is the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). It was published in 2011. The website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) features an online Bible, the NABRE. However, it is approved only for private use and study, even though it is the official Catholic version in the US. The lectionary is still using the 1986 NAB. I found multiple websites that incorrectly state that the lectionary is based on the NABRE.<\p>

I have linked the preface to the NABRB from the Bishops’ website, which explains some of this history and parts of the philosophy behind this newest revision. I’ve also linked a Wikipedia article about the NABRE, which gives specific examples of the differences between it and the older NAB.<\p>

When I began to return to the church in the early 1980s, I asked for a Bible for my birthday. My mom bought me a really nice New American Bible with a fancy leather cover. I purchased a set of tabs for each book of the Bible that you could stick on the first page, so you can quickly get to whatever book you want. Then I also got a big leather cover that went over all of that.<\p>

In the RCIA program I attended as a returning Catholic, and later taught for 30 years, we would give everyone in the class a paperback version of the NAB called the St. Joseph Edition of the New American Bible. Don’t ask me what St. Joseph had to do with it. I think it was just branding. One of the things I really liked about it was that at the beginning, it included a document from Vatican II titled “The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,” which explains how Catholics rely not only upon sacred Scripture but also sacred tradition. I covered that document in Episode 94; you can find the link in the description.<\p>

When my mother attended RCIA with me, she would sit next to me and turn to the appropriate page in my Bible. My handout included specific page numbers from the St. Joseph Edition of the New American Bible for the verses I intended to read. So she and the class participants could quickly find those passages. If it didn’t have a page number, it was just a verse I was providing as reference material, not one I intended to read.<\p>

My Mom developed lung cancer and passed away in February 2009. I don’t know when she stopped attending RCIA with me, but I’m guessing it was two years earlier.<\p>

When I wrote Episode 104 of this podcast about the prophets of the Old Testament, I used an old Microsoft Word file I found on my computer that was my notes from that lesson, named “oldtestament notes 09.” That is, the version of my notes from 2009. There was a later document from 2014 that I did not use because that year, I organised things a little bit differently than usual, and I wanted to use the version I had normally taught from.<\p>

Because I didn’t have Mom to help me, my notes included all of the Scripture quotes I intended to read. I would prop up the pages on an easel, and I could knock the pages off one by one as the lesson progressed. That way, I was able to teach without physical assistance. <\p>

Looking at the document, it is obvious that these quotes were cut and pasted from some other source. If I had been retyping Scripture quotes or dictating them using my dictation software, I would not have included the verse numbers.<\p>

There are two possible sources from which I could have cut and pasted. One is a website called The Bible Gateway. It offers translations of the Bible in many languages, including multiple English versions. The more likely source was the Vatican website.<\p>

As these websites exist today, the Bible Gateway does not include the NAB. It does include the current NABRE. It also includes the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Therein lies the problem. Somehow, somewhere along the way, when I saw the NASB on the Bible Gateway, I thought it was the version I had been using for decades. I began calling the official Catholic version used at Mass the NASB. I called it that in blog posts over the years, occasionally linking to the Bible Gateway, and I called it that in every episode of this podcast up through Episode 104.<\p>

When I wrote the script for Episode 104, I used the quotes from that old Microsoft Word file “oldtestament 09.” After I recorded the episode, I prepared the links to the Scripture quotes I included in the description. I got those links from the US Bishops’ website and labelled them (NASB) because I thought that was the right version.<\p>

After recording the episode and doing basic edits, I went back to add the text pages to the video with the Scripture readings. That’s when I discovered that the Bishops’ version didn’t match my 2009 notes.<\p>

If you had asked me prior to January 19, 2026, what version of the Bible I used, I would have sworn on a stack of them that it was the NASB. I don’t know how or why I confused the NAB with the NASB. It had to come from using the Bible Gateway. Once that bit of erroneous error manifested itself in my brain, it’s stuck with me for years.<\p>

After several Wikipedia searches and after reading the introductory material on the Bishops’ website, I discovered that the Bishops’ version was the NABRE. When I did this research, I was already in bed. I became panicked. I was so certain I had been using the NASB that I began to wonder if our RCIA team had been purchasing the wrong Bible for the entire 30 years that I taught.<\p>

I did a Google search for the St. Joseph Edition of the New American Bible and found images of a salmon-colored cover identical to the ones we distributed in RCIA. When I got up the next day, I found an old RCIA Bible as well as that fancy leather-bound Bible I had received for my birthday decades ago. Much to my relief, they both were New American Bible versions.<\p>

So, the next mystery was, “What version had I cut-and-pasted it into those 2009 notes?” The bishops no longer had a NAB. Neither does Bible Gateway. But God bless the slow-moving Vatican. Their website has a New American Bible dated 2011. This would be after the 1981 Psalm revision and the 1986 New Testament revisions. Note that the NABRE was released around 2011-2012. I tried looking up some of the passengers from my 2009 notes, and they matched the Vatican NAB and did not match the NABRE.<\p>

I rerecorded some of the Scripture quotes for episode 104 to use the NABRE. Originally, Episode 104 was over an hour long, so I split it in half and planned to use the second half as Episode 105. But there were so many Scripture quotes I wanted to revise, so I scrapped the original recording and rerecorded 105 from scratch using the NABRE.<\p>

I still don’t know how I misidentified “my version” as the NASB.<\p>

I did some research about the differences between it and the NABRE. According to Wikipedia, “The NASB relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. It is known for preferring a literal translation style that generally preserves the structure of the original language when possible (formal equivalence), rather than an idiomatic style that attempts to match natural English usage.”<\p>

This leads to some awkward sentence structure. Direct translation of idioms does not translate well from one language to another. Editors of that version claim it is the most accurate and correct translation, but this formal equivalence approach is problematic.<\p>

The NABRE and the NRSVue use dynamic equivalence, also called functional equivalence. Wikipedia explains the difference as follows: “The ‘formal-equivalence’ approach emphasises fidelity to the lexical details and grammatical structure of the source language, whereas ‘dynamic equivalence’ tends to provide a rendering that is more natural to the target language.<\p>

“According to Eugene Nida, dynamic equivalence, the term he originally coined, is the quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been so transported into the receptor language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of a receptor of the original text. The aim is that a reader of both languages will understand the meaning of the text similarly.” I have linked the Wikipedia article on dynamic equivalence and functional equivalence in the description.<\p>

Recently, I began attending weekly Zoom meetings with Jeremy Steele a.k.a. the Skeptic Pastor. In one of those sessions, he compared scripture verses across different English translations. The scholarly consensus is that the best English translation is the New Revised Standard Version – Updated Edition (NRSVue). This is the latest version of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).<\p>

Pastor Jeremy compared the NRSVue, which he prefers, to the New International Version (NIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV). He illustrated how those two versions suffered from evangelical biases. I chimed in on the discussion, quoting from the Catholic version from the Bishops’ website. Unfortunately, I mistakenly identified it as the NASB instead of the NABRE. I corrected my mistake in the following week’s Zoom gathering.<\p>

By the way, Pastor Jeremy interviewed me for his January 11 podcast. I’ve provided a link. I had a blast appearing on his show. Also, he is coming to Indianapolis for a meet-up. If the weather isn’t too nasty, I plan to attend.<\p>

The NRSV has a Catholic edition called the NRSV-CE. It is simply the NRSV, including the Apocrypha books that are normally omitted from Protestant versions. It has received an imprimatur from the Catholic Church, approving its use by Catholics for private reflection and study.<\p>

Scripture translations need to be constantly updated. New manuscripts are discovered. Scholarly consensus evolves. The English language evolves. Words don’t mean the same thing they meant just a few decades ago.<\p>

The Catholic Bible Association is working on yet another revision, scheduled for release on Ash Wednesday in February 2027. It will be approved for use in the Lectionary at Mass as well as for private reflection and study. It will be called the Catholic American Bible (CAB). I guess they gave up on the idea that this Bible had a market beyond the Catholic Church.<\p>

So, anyway, I screwed up. I didn’t know what Bible I was reading from, but I think we’ve straightened it out now and take an interesting deep dive into various versions.<\p>

So, as always… if you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps. <\p>

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.<\p>

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.<\p>

All of my back episodes are available, and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback, please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast. <\p>

I will see you next time as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

This is the fourth and final part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. We continue with our look at Old Testament prophets and how to connect their stories to our present-day experiences.

Hello, this is Chris Young. Welcome to Episode 105 of Contemplating Life.

In this episode, I continue a multi-part series based on my 30 years of teaching the Catholic faith in my local parish’s inquiry program.

As always, whenever I talk about religion, I’m not out to convert anyone. I’m just telling my stories.

Note: Handout materials for this lesson are available as PDFs linked in the episode description.

This is the fourth and final part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. Actually, I was going to wrap things up last time, but the episode was too long, so this is really sort of Episode 104 – Part 2. In this final segment, we will discuss the pros and cons of being a prophet and the dangers of false prophecy.

Before we get started, I have a retraction to make about previous episodes. I’ve been misidentifying the particular translation of Scripture that I’ve been using. The English language translation use that Mass in the United States is called the “New American Bible.” It is abbreviated NAB.

I’ve been calling it the NASB, which stands for New American Standard Bible. The links I have been providing in the descriptions of these podcasts come from the website of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, or USCCB. Those are an updated version of the NAB, called the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). I’ve been misidentifying them as NASB throughout this podcast. I’m going to produce a mini episode explaining all of this in more detail. So, check that out. It should be available any day.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled podcast.

What’s it like to be a prophet? For one, prophets have power. One of my favorite Old Testament stories is about the prophet Elijah. It runs from 1 Kings 16:29 through 1 Kings 18:26.

This guy named Ahab became the king of Israel and ruled for 22 years. It says he “did what was evil in the Lord’s sight more than any of his predecessors.” Not only did he marry a woman named Jezebel (perhaps that’s where the word gets its negative connotation), but he went over to the veneration and worship of Jezebel’s God, Baal. He even erected a temple to this false God. It says, “You did more to anger the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the kings before him.” [1 Kings 18:32-33]

It reminds me of the old song by comedian Allan Sherman about King Louis of France, who was the worst of all of the French kings.

Louis the Sixteenth was the King of France in 1789

He was worse than Louis the Fifteenth

He was worse than Louis the Fourteenth

He was worse than Louis the Thirteenth

He was the worst since Louis the First

[end]

The prophet Elijah delivers a message to Ahab. “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.” [1 Kings 17:1]

Then the Lord tells Elijah to leave and to hide out in the land east of the Jordan. He tells him don’t worry, you can drink from the stream, and I will command ravens to feed you there. And it happened. Eventually, the stream ran dry, and God sent him elsewhere, where he met a widow and her son.

He asked the widow to prepare some food for him. She explains that they have only a small amount of flour and oil for one meal for her and her son. After that, they will starve after death. After this bit of melodrama, he convinces her to make him something first. When she does, the flour and oil magically replenish, and they all three ate well for a year and a half.

Sometime later, the widow’s son fell ill. Elijah was able to miraculously revive him using what sounds like an early version of CPR.

I encourage you to read these accounts of Elijah’s self-imposed exile during the drought. There are some really interesting stories of how powerful Elijah was and how God took care of him.

Finally, after two years, the Lord tells Elijah, it’s time to go back to Ahab, and I will end the drought. He’s been punished enough.

Meanwhile, a guy named Obadiah had been left behind trying to protect believers in the true prophets of the Lord. He helped the prophets hide out, and he brought them food and water. Naturally, there was a lot of animosity towards them for causing the drought. When Elijah returned, Obadiah spotted him coming. I love this scene.

As Obadiah was on his way, Elijah met him. Recognizing him, Obadiah fell prostrate and asked, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?”

He said to him, “Yes. Go tell your lord, ‘Elijah is here!’”

But Obadiah said, “What sin has your servant committed, that you are handing me over to Ahab to be killed? As the LORD, your God, lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent in search of you. When they replied, ‘He is not here,’ he made each kingdom and nation swear they could not find you. And now you say, ‘Go tell your lord: Elijah is here! ’After I leave you, the spirit of the LORD will carry you to some place I do not know, and when I go to inform Ahab, and he does not find you, he will kill me—though your servant has revered the LORD from his youth! [1 Kings 18:7-12]

I love Obadiah’s attitude. What did I do to you to put me in this god-awful position? As sure as I go tell him you’re back, you will run off again, leaving me like you did the last time!

Obadiah then recounts everything he’s done and how faithful he has been while Elijah was away.

Elijah answered, “As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, I will present myself to him today.” So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and informed him, and Ahab came to meet Elijah.

When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is it you, you disturber of Israel?”

He answered, “It is not I who disturbs Israel, but you and your father’s house, by forsaking the commands of the LORD and you by following the Baals. Now summon all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, as well as the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.” [1 Kings 18:15-19]

So, they all gathered on the mountain, and Elijah prepared a demonstration. He told the people to pick a side. Sort of like the way Joshua gave a choice to the people in the example I gave last episode. Follow the false prophets of Baal or follow the true God. They prepared 2 sacrifices. One for the false prophets and one for Elijah. They didn’t like the fire. Whichever God could ignite the sacrifice was the true God. Everyone agreed. It says…

Taking the young bull that was turned over to them, they prepared it and called upon Baal from morning to noon, saying, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one answering. And they hopped around the altar they had prepared.

When it was noon, Elijah taunted them: “Call louder, for he is a god; he may be busy doing his business, or may be on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

[1 Kings 18:26-27]

Elijah sure knew how to talk trash. Can’t you just picture these guys dancing around their altar, trying to get their god to ignite the sacrifice?

They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears according to their ritual until blood gushed over them. Noon passed, and they remained in a prophetic state until the time for offering sacrifice. But there was no sound, no one answering, no one listening.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” When they drew near to him, he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been destroyed. He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the LORD had said: Israel shall be your name. He built the stones into an altar to the name of the LORD, and made a trench around the altar large enough for two measures of grain. When he had arranged the wood, he cut up the young bull and laid it on the wood.

He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it over the burnt offering and over the wood.” “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he said, and they did it a third time. The water flowed around the altar; even the trench was filled with the water.

At the time for offering sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came forward and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back to you.”

The LORD’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench.

[By the way, I wonder if this is where they got the idea of Jewish space lasers. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Anyway…]

Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”

Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape!” They seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and there he slaughtered them.

[1 Kings 18: 28-40]

Wow. He certainly showed them up.

However, I told you that story so I can tell you this one. There is a cost to being a prophet. Elijah had to go into hiding after telling Ahab there would be a drought. When he returned, Obadiah felt the cost of doing the right thing. He feared for the consequences of being faithful. Elijah knew he was doing what the Lord wanted. He was going to purge all of these false prophets and set things right. He became somewhat zealous about it. He may have gone too far. And he was going to suffer the consequences.

When Ahab told Jezebel about what had happened, she wanted Elijah killed. Keep in mind, Jezebel was the whole reason that Ahab converted to worship Baal in the first place. You can just imagine that difficult conversation. “You let that guy show you up and kill all the prophets to my God? Get off your ass and do something about it.”

Elijah had to escape into the desert. He became severely depressed. He did the right thing. Perhaps overboard. And now he was being hunted. It says in 1 Kings 19:4-18

He prayed for death: “Enough, LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” He lay down and fell asleep under the solitary broom tree, but suddenly a messenger touched him and said, “Get up and eat!”

He looked, and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you!”

He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. There he came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him: Why are you here, Elijah?

He answered: “I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.”

Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light, silent sound.

When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah?

He replied, “I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.” [1 Kings 19:4-18]

Can’t you just imagine Elijah sitting there in the cave, repeatedly asking himself, “How did I get here? What did I do? Did I do the right thing? Why am I so scared? What am I going to do next?” But, in that tiny, soft, whispering voice, he heard God telling him what to do.

The LORD said to him: Go back! Take the desert road to Damascus. When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram. You shall also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.

Anyone who escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. Anyone who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. But I will spare seven thousand in Israel—every knee that has not bent to Baal, every mouth that has not kissed him. [1 Kings 19: 4-18]

This story speaks to me on so many levels. You may recall from Episode 40 that I told the stories of my ministry on the finance committee at Saint Gabriel. We were in financial trouble. The so-called experts of fundraising say that you should keep hitting up your big money donors. The smaller donors are fine, but they are giving all they can. Even if those $5 donors gave $6 each, it still wouldn’t help. You can only make up a shortfall by going after the wealthy. In traditional charitable giving, that’s a good strategy.

The problem was that we were not doing traditional fundraising. We were promoting tithing. The philosophy was, don’t give because we need money. Saying that we need money is nearly heresy. It’s saying that God didn’t give us what we need. We said, give 10% because it’s the right thing to do. Now, if we come along and say we need more, it looks greedy. It says that the scripturally based idea of tithing didn’t work.

I tried to warn them it would backfire. I tried to be a prophet. Although they didn’t come after me with swords, it hurt to be ignored. See, I didn’t want to be right. I didn’t want to get in my “I told you so.” It hurt me to say that the parish I loved was going in the wrong direction. I had been zealous for the Lord, and I was paying a price for it. Like Elijah, I wanted to crawl into a cave and hide.

In some ways, I did. I withdrew emotionally. I tried to hear God. All I heard was storms, earthquakes, and noises. I had to find that quiet place in the cave where I could hear God whispering that it would be okay.

Unfortunately, my prophecy was right. There was backlash. Some of our wealthy donors were upset, and hitting them up for more money alienated some of them, and in the end, it didn’t help our financial problems. We had to try other strategies that were consistent with our principles. I was unable to call us back to those principles. The parish had to find its way back on its own.

In the New Testament, even Jesus had a rough time when he went home to Galilee. In Luke 4:24, he says, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Said things like, “Isn’t that Jesus the carpenter’s son? Why should we listen to him?” The same story is told in Matthew 13:57 and Mark 6:4. But what is really unusual is that it is also told in John 4:44. It’s common for Matthew, Mark, and Luke to agree. They are known as the synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means they see alike. John usually goes off and tells his own stories in his own way. This must’ve been a big deal to the gospel authors if they all four included it.

The bottom line is, it was hard for me to be a prophet in my own parish.

Sometimes I feel burdened by my role as a prophet or any other difficult job in my ministry. I often say, “Who died and left me this crappy job to do? Well… I guess it was Jesus, wasn’t it?”

That brings us to our next point. A prophet is called by God. You don’t just get to do it on your own. In Jeremiah 1:4-10 it says…

The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

“Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!”

But the LORD answered me, Do not say, “I am too young.” To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. [Jeremiah 1:4-7]

It sort of sounds like God is saying, “Ask not what your God can do for you. Ask what you can do for your God.” Continuing with verse 8…

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you—oracle of the LORD. Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth. Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, To uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant. [Jeremiah 1:8-10]

Many of the other prophets felt unworthy. However, God makes them worthy. In Isaiah 6:1-8, Isaiah has a vision in which he is called to be a prophet.

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered.

One cried out to the other: “Holy, holy, holy* is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”

At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!* For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips,d and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said, “send me!” [Isaiah 6:1-6]

That particular passage is quite meaningful to me, and to much of Saint Gabriel Parish back when I was active. I’ve spoken before about our parish renewal program called Christ Renews His Parish. A primary goal of that program was to inspire people to become more actively involved in parish activities. We had a theme song for that program, which was titled “Here I Am, Lord.” It was based in part upon that scripture quote. I’ve provided a link to the song on Spotify.

Once you feel a call to some sort of ministry in the church, even if it isn’t as a prophet, that call can become irresistible. One of the prime examples of that irresistible call is the famous myth of Jonah and the great fish (sometimes called a whale) in Jonah 1-3. We always hear about Jonah and the whale, but you rarely hear how he got there in the first place.

Jonah was called to go preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh who had gone astray. Jonah didn’t want to go. He didn’t think the people of Nineveh were worth saving. He chartered a passage on a boat headed in the opposite direction from Nineveh. God sent a vicious storm that nearly destroyed the boat. When the sailors discovered it was Jonah’s fault, they threw him overboard, and he was swallowed by a giant fish. Three days later, the fish spits him out onto a beach. Guess where… Nineveh. Jonah preached repentance to them reluctantly. And then was still angry when they actually repented.

Scripture warns that there are many false prophets. In the story we told earlier about Elijah, it says that the false prophets outnumbered the good ones 850 to 1.

Jeremiah says, “A shocking, horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?”

God warns that false prophets tell the people what they want to hear and do not speak for God. You can see examples of this in Jeremiah 14:11-60 and 23:9-25.

In Deuteronomy 18:20, God orders that false prophets be put to death. Anytime you lie, it’s a sin. But it’s particularly bad when you claim to be speaking for God, and you aren’t. We see too much of that today.

How do you know if a prophet is true or false? Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes you have to wait to see if the prophecy comes true. Again, we are not focusing too much on the predictive abilities of prophets. But if the prophecy leads you further astray, in the end, you will suffer for it and realize that the person was a false prophet.

Currently, many people are realizing that they may have been following a false prophet in the form of Donald Trump. They thought he was speaking for God, but gradually, too late, they are discovering their mistake and facing buyer’s remorse. It’s easy to be seduced by a false prophet. Sometimes it just takes time for things to play out, and you realize your mistake.

Even Moses, who spoke directly with God, had his doubts. He wasn’t sure he was really being called by God. It was only years later, in retrospect, that he could be certain he had done the right thing.

In Exodus 3, when Moses was first called to lead the people, God spoke to him through a burning bush. Moses was initially a bit skeptical. He wanted to know who he was talking to. God said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had seen the suffering of his people in Egypt and was sending Moses to rescue them and lead them to the promised land.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

God answered: I will be with you; and this will be your sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God at this mountain. [Exodus 3:11-12]

So, Moses would have to wait to see if he ended up back here successfully, then he would know he did the right thing.

Anyway, in Exodus 18, Moses realizes the prophecy was true; he ends up back in the land with his father-in-law Jethro, offering sacrifice to the LORD on that same mountain where he received his initial call. Only in retrospect is he certain that he really was doing God’s work. Sometimes, we think we are doing God’s work but we can’t really be sure until we see how things turn out.

That’s going to wrap things up for our brief look at the Old Testament. I hope you have come to appreciate why many things in the Old Testament seem so different from the New Testament. It isn’t because God is different. It’s because we are different.

If we go back to what we said about the Ascending View of Scripture, we understand that Scripture was not handed down by Divine Dictation. Rather, people of faith recorded their experiences of God to be handed down across generations. We have to understand Scripture in this context. In the Old Testament, humanity is like a rebellious child who must occasionally be disciplined. We need laws to keep us on the right path. Sometimes we have to be punished to get our attention. We have to be taught that there are consequences to our actions.

On the other hand, we were sent prophets whose job it was to call us back when we went astray. If we heed these prophets and their warnings, we will reap the benefits.

Sometimes, we have to listen to personal prophets. Our friends and family occasionally have to call us back to the right path. And sometimes, we are called to be prophets as well. Not to sit in judgment of others, but to lovingly remind people how to be the best versions of themselves.

When I taught these lessons, I would speak for about 90 minutes, and the remainder of the session was devoted to a discussion period. Here are the discussion questions I offered for our group sharing after this lesson. You can also find these questions in the PDF handout materials.

1. Is your image of God that of a harsh judge waiting to find fault with you, or is He a loving parent who protects you
2. Has your image of God changed over your life in regards to topic #1?
3. How do you feel about giving
4. Does god still speak to us through others? Who are our modern-day prophets? Who are false prophets?
5. Have you ever been a prophet to a friend/relative like David & Nathan? Or have they been one to you?
6. Can you give an incident in your life when god truly spoke to you, even if it was ever so softly?
7. How do you feel about this statement: The First Amendment to the Constitution which codifies the separation Church and State, which protects us from violating the First Commandment against worshipping false gods

In future episodes, we will wrap up this series of RCIA lessons with our brief look at the New Testament which will also be a failure because I had to teach the entire New Testament in one evening.

I will probably take a break from this series before that.

In our next episode, I will have a reflection about religious symbolism in literature, movies, and TV. This will include a look at the Netflix series “Stranger Things”.

By then, it will be time for the Academy Awards. I will again attempt to review all 10 movies nominated for Best Picture and perhaps some of the other major acting awards. But we will get back to the New Testament eventually.

So, as always… if you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available, and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback, please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next time as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

This is the third part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. Recall that we said last time that the New Testament refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as “The law and the prophets.” In this episode, we examine the role of a prophet. This is an attempt to make the Old Testament applicable to our everyday lives.

Hello, this is Chris Young. Welcome to Episode 104 of Contemplating Life.

In this episode, I continue a multi-part series based on my 30 years of teaching the Catholic faith in my local parish’s inquiry program.

As always, whenever I talk about religion, I’m not out to convert anyone. I’m just telling my stories.

Note: Handout materials for this lesson are available as PDFs linked in the episode description.

This is the third and final part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. Recall that we said last time that the New Testament refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as “the law and the prophets.” In this episode, we examine the role of a prophet. This is an attempt to make the Old Testament applicable to our everyday lives.

We often think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future. While that does occasionally occur, that’s not their primary role.

I like to think of prophets as God’s Press Secretary or spokesperson. If you are a fan of the old TV series The West Wing, which was popular when I first started teaching this lesson, President Bartlett’s press secretary was CJ. Craig. She would come out before the press and say something like, “Today, President Bartlett initiated a new legislative agenda which will do… blah, blah, blah.” Similarly, the Old Testament prophets would go before the people and say, “Thus says the Lord, God of Israel… blah blah blah.”

It’s also important to consider what kind of message the prophets were delivering. Most of the time, it was to call people back to God when they were going astray. They would remind the people of all that God had done for them and that they had agreed to a covenant relationship with him.

Sometimes, prophets would have dreams or visions of what the future would hold for the Chosen People. Typically, these dreams foretold that if people reformed their lives and returned to God, they would prosper. Alternatively, if they continued to go astray, the people would suffer. So, in some respects, these predictions of the future were self-fulfilling prophecies.

It should be noted that much of what we consider “prophecy” in the Old Testament was written after the events had already unfolded. An event would occur, and they would write that it had been prophesied in advance.

Furthermore, Christian apologists look at Old Testament passages and interpret events as a prophecy about Jesus. In reality, many of these stories that seem to point to Jesus or foreshadow his coming were not actually written about him.

For example, in Matthew 1:18-23, Joseph is visited by an angel in a dream and told that his fiancée, Mary, is pregnant, but that she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and that he should not divorce her. The angel says in part, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” This is a reference to Isaiah 7:14, which says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel.”

Notice that it says, “young woman” and not “virgin.” The Greek Septuagint mistranslates the word as “virgin”; thus, when Matthew quotes it, he uses the term “virgin” to reinforce the idea of the virgin birth of Jesus.

Apart from this mistaken translation, when Isaiah wrote it, it was not intended as a prophecy. It referred to contemporary events during King Ahaz’s time. This is just one of many so-called predictions about the Messiah that were not originally intended as prophecy. The New Testament authors were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures and sought every opportunity to draw connections. This is especially true in Matthew’s Gospel, as he aims to portray Jesus within the context of Jewish history.

So, let’s not focus on the predictive powers of the prophets. We will concentrate more on their role of calling people back to God when they go astray. To help us wrap our brains around these ideas, let’s consider some more modern historical figures who I believe are also a type of prophet.

I propose that Abraham Lincoln was a prophet in delivering his famous Gettysburg Address. You probably had to memorize that speech in grade school, but did you ever really stop to think what he was saying?

It was just 87 years ago that our country was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He is reminding us that human equality is not just a value that we hold but is the very foundation of our country from its conception. He goes on to say, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.”

In essence, he’s saying that the war isn’t about North versus South. It isn’t about the economic reasons for the war. While it certainly is about slavery, on a deeper level, the entire concept behind America is on trial. He is calling us back to our roots. He is asking us whether we really believe in human equality. Why did these people die on this battlefield? It was so that a nation “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.”

He is challenging us to remember what we are all about and to continue to live out that mission. That is what a prophet does.

Before we move on from Lincoln, let’s go off topic for a moment and talk about the enormity of what he did. For all of human history, the idea that human beings could be property that can be brought, owned, and sold was the natural order of things. There is absolutely nothing in Scripture that condemns slavery. In nearly every instance, it condones it. It acts as though it is no big deal. The best that can be said for Scripture on the topic of slavery is that in various places it says you should treat your slaves well. The concept of human ownership is entirely permissible in Scripture.

The American Revolution was based upon the radically new idea that people could govern themselves. The American Civil War was about the similarly radical view that human beings are not property. Lincoln dedicated his political career and ultimately gave his life for that idea.

If you ever wonder if massive moral reform is beyond the capability of the human race, if you ever think that we will always have wars and violence, if you think that hatred will prevail over compassion, look at Lincoln. He, and the other abolitionists of his time took a stance and eliminated institutionalized slavery.

Sure, not everyone experiences the kind of equality and dignity that our American ideals espoused. Circumstances such as generational poverty enslave people. Minorities, especially women, are abused and denied fundamental rights. However, in most of the world, the idea of ownership of human beings has largely been eliminated.

That’s why I think Lincoln was a prophet who spoke for God.

As our next example, consider the famous inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, in which he challenges us with the words, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” So often, especially today, people think of “the government” as some outside entity that controls their lives. JFK is reminding us that we are the government. The government only works when we participate. It’s not some outside influence that we should depend upon for a handout or that we should fear for its control over us. We are the government. Again, this is a prophetic message reminding us of our core values.

I also noted that prophets are often dreamers who envision a better future. And what better example of that do we have than the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous speech, “I have a dream.” He envisions a future where people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He is calling us to follow a righteous path in the same way the Old Testament dreamers, such as Daniel and other prophets, called the people to follow the ways of the Lord.

So, I hope that by examining some of these more modern historical prophets, we can better understand the prophets of the Old Testament.

Let’s look at some specific examples of other things prophets do.

Prophets guide us on our journey. Throughout much of Exodus, from chapters 3-24, we learn that Moses was not only God’s spokesperson but also guided the Chosen People to the Promised Land.

Often, a prophet will remind us of all that God has done for us. Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land, but Joshua took over as leader. In Joshua 24, he recounts all the good things that God had done for them.

It says…

Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: [There is that press secretary mode I was talking about earlier.] In times past, your ancestors, down to Terah,b father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and served other gods. But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. [Joshua 24:1-3]

[Skipping to verse 5]

“Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and struck Egypt with the plagues and wonders that I wrought in her midst.e Afterward I led you out. And when I led your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors to the Red Sea with chariots and charioteers. [Joshua 24:5-6]

[Skipping to verse 8]

I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your power. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them at your approach. [Joshua 24:8]

[Skipping to verse 13. I really like this one.]

I gave you a land you did not till and cities you did not build, to dwell in; you ate of vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. [Joshua 24:13-14]

[Joshua, speaking on behalf of God, then offers them a clear choice. Who are you going to serve? Continuing with verse 15.]

If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling.

[Next comes a well-known passage of Scripture that many people have posted in their homes. It illustrates that a prophet leads by example. Joshua says…]

As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He performed those great signs before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among all the peoples through whom we passed. At our approach, the LORD drove out all the peoples, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. Therefore, we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” [Joshua 24:15-18]

Joshua could have just said, “Okay, cool. You guys made the right choice. But he is speaking for God. And God gives us free will. He’s making sure they understand the choice they are making.

“You may not be able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a passionate God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, he will then do evil to you and destroy you, after having done you good.” [Joshua 24:19-20]

Okay, so that’s a bit of Old Testament mentality. That’s like when your mother tells you you better behave, or when your father gets home, there will be hell to pay. In the Old Testament, humanity was still a child, and we had to be motivated to behave well. The threat of punishment was important. That may not be the loving God we see in the New Testament, but remember our thesis: God didn’t change; we did. God our father was looking out for us, even though he seemed harsh in doing so. Continuing with verse 21…

But the people answered Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”

Finally, in verse 25, it says, “So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.”

There is another example of a covenant that we discussed in the previous episode.

Moving along… A prophet also points out to us the consequences we face when we don’t follow God. In the first chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses recounts their approach to the Promised Land, which was occupied by the Amorites. Moses told them that the Lord was giving them this land. Go ahead, occupy. God is on our side.

The people were skeptical. They wanted to send scouts ahead so they would know which road to take. Moses agreed. The scouts reported back that it was a great place. They brought back some lovely fruit, showing what a rich land it was.

In Deuteronomy 1:26-28, Moses complains, “But you refused to go up, and after defying the command of the LORD, your God, you set to murmuring in your tents, ‘Out of hatred for us the LORD has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us. What shall we meet with up there? Our kinsmen have made us fainthearted by reporting that the people are stronger and taller than we, and their cities are large and fortified to the sky; besides, they saw the Anakim there.” The Anakim were feared people who were often described as giants. There is some indication that Goliath the giant who was later killed by David was a descendent of the Anakim.

Anyway, Moses told them to proceed, that God would protect them, but they didn’t listen. Moses told them no one of their generation would see the Promised Land because they were too fearful. Only the next generation would get to see it. All except for Caleb and Joshua, and their families, because they were faithful.

Once they hesitated, Moses told them not to go. Because they doubted, God would no longer support them. The people decided to proceed with the fight despite Moses’ warning not to. They ultimately lost to the Amorites. One could argue that those who doubted were right all along. However Scripture takes the position that Moses warned them that they would suffer for their lack of trust, and he was right.

Sometimes the guidance of a prophet can be a personal one-on-one situation. We come to one of my favorite examples in Scripture in 2 Samuel 11-12.

It’s the famous story of King David and his lust for Bathsheba. One day, David is sitting in his mansion, looking out the window, when he sees a beautiful woman sunbathing nude on the rooftop next to him. He inquires who she is and discovers she is the wife of one of his generals, Uriah. Despite pretty clear commandments against adultery and literally coveting your neighbor’s wife, he summons Bathsheba and one thing leads to another. Doesn’t it always? Did you ever have one thing that didn’t leads to another? Anyway…

She ends up pregnant. So David orders Uriah back home so that he can be with Bathsheba and then he will presume that the baby is his. Unfortunately for Dave, Uriah is a man of honor. He refuses to take time off from his military duties because his men don’t have the opportunity to come home to their wives. Rats. What to do next?

David orders his army into battle; when Uriah is on the front lines, the army withdraws, leaving Uriah undefended. Our hero Uriah died a noble death in battle. So sad.

The prophet Nathan was David’s advisor and friend. In 2 Samuel 12:1-12 it says…

The LORD sent Nathan to David. [There is that spokesperson role again. Nathan is speaking for God.] … and when he came to him, he said: “Judge this case for me! In a certain town, there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup, and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him.

“Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.”

David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. [Yes, that was wives plural. So much for the idea of biblical marriage between one maInn and one woman. Anyway, continuing…] I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife. Thus says the LORD: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'” [Wow, Nate, don’t hold back any. Tell us what you really think.]

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan answered David: “The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”

By the way, God did forgive David, but David still suffered the consequences of his sin. Not only was he in constant battle the rest of his life, but he also lost the son he had with Bathsheba to illness.

This story is especially meaningful to me because there have been times in my life when people who loved me have taken on the role of the prophet. In one particular case, I will never forget, I did something incredibly stupid. A very dear friend called me aside one day and said, “What you did today was out of character.” Those words, “out of character,” really hit me hard. In essence, they were saying, “The Chris that I know and care about isn’t like that. This isn’t you. You are better than that.” They were right. I screwed up. While I didn’t wasn’t nearly as bad as murdering my neighbor to sleep with his wife, I felt like I was David and my friend was being Nathan.

There have been other times when, unfortunately, I felt like I had to be a prophet. Sometimes for a friend. Other times for my church. We’ll talk about that more in a minute.

As an aside for a minute, note Nathan’s use of the phrase “As the Lord lives.” You will hear that phrase repeated a lot. This was sort of an Old Testament way of saying something like “God as my witness…whatever.” It was sort of like swearing an oath without actually swearing an oath, which, of course, was forbidden. If someone said, “As the Lord lives,” you knew they meant business.

Change of plans here. Having recorded this episode and done a rough edit, is over an hour long. So were going to split this episode here and pick up next time and wrap up our look at the prophets and the Old Testament.

So, as always… if you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available, and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback, please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next time as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

In this episode, I continue a multi-part series based on my 30 years of teaching the Catholic faith in my local parish’s inquiry program. This is the second part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. We examine the differences between Catholic and Protestant versions of the Old Testament and the reasons behind those differences. We also discuss the role of a covenant ratified through sacrifice and Old Testament law.

Hello, this is Chris Young. Welcome to Episode 103 of Contemplating Life.

In this episode, I continue a multi-part series based on my 30 years of teaching the Catholic faith in my local parish’s inquiry program.

As always, whenever I talk about religion, I’m not out to convert anyone. I’m just telling my stories.

Handout materials for this lesson are available as PDFs in the episode description.

Note, this episode contains a frank discussion about how sexual assault was treated in biblical times. Listener discretion is advised.

This is the second part of my very brief overview of the Old Testament. Recall that we said last time that the New Testament refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as “The Law and the Prophets.” In this episode, we continue looking at laws. We proposed that laws are not a negative thing. They are designed by our loving Father to protect us. Let’s dive deeper into laws.

Why have laws?

One reason is to allow us choices. In our introductory lesson, we discussed free will as an essential element of humanity. It is a gift from God. Yet how do we show our devotion to God? How do we exercise our free will in our relationship with God?

Because God gives us laws, it gives us the opportunity to choose to follow his laws or to reject him. In Genesis 2:16-17, it says: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad….the moment you eat from it, you are surely doomed to die.” So, in some respects, the forbidden fruit is simply a test which, unfortunately, Adam and Eve failed.

Another purpose of the law is to preserve the mission. For example, in Exodus 19:3-8, it says,

Moses went up to the mountain of God. Then the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying: This is what you will say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine.

You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

What does it mean to be a kingdom of priests? Priests are people who lead others to God. So the Israelites, God’s Chosen People, were to be an entire kingdom of priests. They have a holy mission to serve as intermediaries, bringing the rest of the world to God. However, to do so, they must follow God’s laws. Because Christians are also people of God, the New Testament also reminds us that we are a priestly people. (See 1 Peter 2:9)

Another reason for laws is to teach us fundamental morals. The prime example is the Ten Commandments as outlined in Exodus 20. Incidentally, the morality embodied in the Ten Commandments was nothing new. There are close parallels between them and an even more ancient standard called the Code of Hammurabi. We discussed the commandments in our previous episode.

There are many other commandments in the Old Testament. Much of Leviticus and Deuteronomy consists of lists of laws and commandments that Moses handed down to the Chosen People. Keep in mind that Moses wasn’t just a religious leader. He was a community leader. The commandments include what we today would describe as “civil law.” They include instructions on settling disputes. What if someone steals your ox or damages your property? What restitution must be paid? There are hundreds of these kinds of commandments that deal with these issues.

Scripture scholar Dan McClellan, who I’ve referred to many times, points out that many of the civil laws found in the Old Testament are contrary to the kind of morality we have today. In his book “The Bible Says So That this“ one of the main cases he outlines are the laws regarding rape.

If an unmarried woman was raped, the perpetrator had to pay her father because she was now damaged goods and could not be married to a suitor who would pay a price for his bride. The rapist had to pay restitution and marry the woman because no one else would. This meant that a rape victim was destined to spend the rest of her life married to her attacker.

If a married woman was raped, the penalty was death, not out of respect for the woman but for the damage done to the husband’s property, his wife. Depending on whether or not she cried out for help, she could be killed as well.

The woman had no agency in either circumstance. She was simply a property that the sexual assault had damaged.

The next time someone speaks in favour of biblical marriage, you might want to bring that up.

Many of the laws and commandments regarded various rituals and prayers. There are detailed descriptions of how to celebrate special occasions such as Passover. There are descriptions of priestly garments to be worn by the Levites.

Today, Christian apologists make a distinction between moral laws and ritual laws. No such distinction was made at the time these commandments were promulgated. One can argue that the debate among the apostles about whether or not one had to follow all Jewish practices in order to become a Christian released us from such ritual and dietary regulations. That’s okay. But just keep in mind that the distinction between morality versus religious commandments was not one observed by the ancient Hebrews.

Because these commandments also included what we would describe as civil laws today, issues such as dietary restrictions were simply good public health practices. Forbidding certain foods, such as pork, was good public health policy because these animals were literally unclean.

While male circumcision was considered a religious ritual, one can also argue the health benefits of the practice. There are legitimate reasons behind it not just an act of religious commitment.

To help put this in context, I invite you to take a look at the chart on the third page of our handout materials. It shows the relationship between various types of laws as is seen in the Old Testament, the New Testament, Church law, and our secular government laws.

In our first row of the table, we look at the source of the law. In the Old Testament, the source was God the Father via Moses and the prophets. In the New Testament, the source is God the Son, Jesus, who handed down laws to us via the apostles. In church law, the source is God the Holy Spirit via the Church leadership such as the Pope and the bishops. In our secular society, the source of law is “We the people” via our elected representatives.

On the second row of the table, we list basic principles. In the Old Testament this is found in the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, our basic principles of Christian life are found in the Beatitudes delivered by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Catholic Church, there are the Precepts the Church, sometimes referred to as the Laws of the Church, which we will discuss at another time. Finally, in our civil society, our basic principles are outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

The third row talks about social law. In the Old Testament, these are found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as I mentioned before. In the New Testament, we have the Sermon on the Mount and other teachings about the Christian life. In church law, there are rules and regulations regarding marriage and excommunication. In civil society, we have criminal and civil laws.

The fourth row we describe as religious laws, but more generically, these are rules and regulations about how to do things. In the Old Testament, there are descriptions of the Passover Seder and various other rituals and feasts to be celebrated. In the New Testament, we can find scriptural foundations for the celebration of the sacraments. These include things such as “Do this in remembrance of me,” which is the basis for our celebration of the Mass. Or “Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We are also taught how to pray, for example, through the Lord’s Prayer. In the modern church, we have liturgical law and sacramental policies. Under secular government, we have programmatic regulations. These explain in detail how to implement laws.

For the final row of our table, we look at guidance. In the Old Testament, we have the Wisdom and Prophetic books. In the New Testament, Jesus gives us parables and teachings to guide us. In the modern church, the Pope and Bishops issue Encyclicals and teaching documents to offer us guidance. In secular society, the government develops public policies and goals that it hopes to achieve.

I hope this helps you to understand various types of laws and put the Old Testament laws in context with the rest of Scripture, the authority of the church, and our civil governments.

On the same page of the handout material, let’s take a deeper dive into what is in the Old Testament.

The Catholic version of the Old Testament consists of 46 books. However, most Protestant Bibles contain only 39. Here is the background…

The books of Tobit, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I & II Maccabees, and parts of Daniel were written in Greek. These books are known as “deuterocanonical books” which means they are part of a second canon of books. They formed part of the Septuagint Greek text and were interspersed among the other books of the Old Testament.

The Septuagint is the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Legend holds that it was ordered produced by Ptolemy II Philadelphus ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom from 284 to 246 BC. He gathered 72 scholars, six from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, to translate the Hebrew Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek.

There is much scholarly debate on when Jewish leadership officially formed the canon of sacred writing considered inspired by God as Holy Scripture. In one respect, it wasn’t until 90 CE that the Jewish leadership officially adopted as inspired 38 books thought to be written originally in Hebrew and rejecting the Septuagint Greek text. One can understand why the Jewish people would only hold in reverence sacred writings in Hebrew.

The Septuagint was the basis for much of the Latin Vulgate, which was the official translation of the Catholic Church created by Saint Jerome in the fourth century CE. The seven books in question only became controversial because Jerome placed them in a separate section of his Latin translation.

In 393 CE, the Council of Hippo adopted as “inspired” the 26 books of the New Testament. Until then, each local church had its own collection of sacred writings; many were held in common, but others were disputed. There is no disagreement between Protestants and Catholics about the contents of the New Testament. We share the same 26 books.

Martin Luther published his German translation of the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament in 1534. He did not regard the deuterocanonical books as Scripture but described them as “useful and good reading.” He followed the practice of Jerome in placing them at the end of the Old Testament, but labeled them “Apocrypha,” which means not authentic.

In 1564, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent officially declared these books to be sacred and to be accepted “with equal devotion and reverence”. That church Council was in response to the Protestant Reformation.

It turns out that there was a good reason why Martin Luther might’ve been prejudiced against these books. The Protestant Reformation was primarily about corruption in the Catholic Church. Let’s take a minute to go down a rabbit hole and talk about the Reformation.

One of the difficult parts of Christian teaching is the idea that if you die in a state of sin, you will be damned to hell for eternity. That doesn’t seem consistent with our concept of a loving and merciful God.

To remedy this situation, the Catholic Church invented the idea of purgatory. If you a committed a minor offense, you would not be pure enough to enjoy the beatific vision of God in heaven. But you didn’t deserve eternal damnation either. So upon judgment at your death, you could be sent to a place of finite temporal punishment called purgatory, which would purge you of your offenses. Everyone who ever goes to purgatory is guaranteed to get to heaven eventually. The severity of your sins determines how long you spend in purgatory.

The church holds that through prayer and good works, you can expiate some of your offenses and shorten your sentence in purgatory. Good works that you perform throughout your life count in your favor. These are called indulgences. The offering of particular prayers or various charitable works can earn one an indulgence. The problem is that the Church defined one way to gain an indulgence as donating money to the Church.

Unscrupulous clergy saw a way to exploit this for their own gain. Donate money to the church, and we will see to it that you get a short time in purgatory. Or, donate on behalf of a deceased friend or relative to earn them similar indulgences. The wealthy were encouraged to donate land and possessions to the Church in their will. In large part, the Protestant Reformation was motivated by the corruption surrounding the selling of indulgences.

In one of the deuterocanonical books, 2 Maccabees 12:38-46, we have the story of a Jewish priest and warrior named Judah Maccabee. He was an early leader in the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, taking over from his father around 166 BCE, and leading the revolt until his death in 160 BCE.

Judah and his warriors discovered something disturbing as they prepared to bury those of their number who fell in battle. In verse 40, it says, “But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had fallen.” That’s an interesting conclusion. You can just see Judah asking around the survivors, “Hey, are any of you guys wearing forbidden amulets? No? Will these guys were. No wonder they died.”

Feeling sorry for their fallen comrades, they prayed that God would forgive this sin. This begs the question: if you die in a state of sin, why bother praying for someone who is already condemned to hell? So, there must be some other place besides heaven or hell you can go after dying, where prayers of the living might be helpful to the ultimate disposition of your soul.

The Catholic Church uses that particular passage, in part, to justify the concept of purgatory. Prayers for the dead are perfectly fine. Look at that passage. Why did they pray if you are going straight to hell? There must be something else there. We’re going to call that purgatory.

Here’s where it gets interesting. They didn’t just pray. They took up a monetary collection to send to the temple so that they would offer sacrifices for the warriors who died in sin. And there is your scriptural justification for the practice of monetary donations to get you a shorter sentence in purgatory.

Because such donations are being solicited and used corruptly, you can easily understand why Martin Luther might be motivated to want to leave out that particular piece of Scripture if he had the chance.

By the way, I forgot a couple of things, so I’m editing in a brief insert here. First question: Did Martin Luther believe in purgatory? That depends. When he posted his original 95 Theses criticizing the Catholic Church, he addressed purgatory, but in later years, it’s clear his beliefs evolved away from purgatory altogether.

The other issue I forgot to mention is that the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, firmly declared that the Church had the right to offer indulgences, but specifically outlawed monetary donations for indulgences.

I’m going to wander off on a tangent for a second. How did the medieval church become so corrupt? One of my colleagues teaching RCIA at Saint Gabriel was the late Dr. Jim Divita, who was a history professor at Marion University, a local Catholic institution. He had a theory on why the Church became so corrupt. He blames it on the Black Death plague. It is estimated that 50 million people, roughly half of Europe’s population, died from the disease in the mid-1300s.

When someone is at death’s door, you call for the priest to administer Last Rites. Dedicated clergy would heed the call, exposing themselves to the disease. However, dispassionate or lazy clergy would stay isolated and survive. Additionally, the vacuum left by vacancies in the clergy was often filled by those seeking the position for less than altruistic or spiritual reasons. A great deal of power and wealth rested in the church, and men of greed were attracted to the position. Two centuries later, corruption was widespread and reached the top.

The theory makes sense to me. Jim was a great teacher who could make otherwise boring history compelling. I miss him dearly.

Back to the Apocrypha.

For centuries, most Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha, but it was not considered as important as the remainder of Scripture. Dan McClellan has reported that the American Bible Society decided to drop the Apocrypha just to make the book smaller and cheaper to print. Commenters on his videos deny that. I’m not knowledgeable enough to have an opinion.

In summary, Jews are not too keen on these books because they don’t trust anything not written in Hebrew. Protestants, led by Martin Luther, have their reasons for wanting to ignore these books.

Moving along, we want to talk about how we could make the Old Testament more relatable. One way to do that is to understand the parallels between the Old and New Testaments. I invite you to look at the chart at the bottom of the third handout page. Here are the parallels.

The Jews were the first people of God. Christians are the second people of God.

The 12 sons of Jacob form the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 apostles form the early church.

Israel’s children are enslaved in Egypt. Adam’s children are enslaved by sin.

Deliverance comes from the blood of the Passover lamb spread on the doorposts. Deliverance also comes by the blood of Jesus, spread on the cross.

The Chosen people were saved by passing through the waters of the Red Sea. Christians are saved by passing through the waters of baptism.

The chosen people were fed in the desert by manna– a bread come down from heaven. Christians are fed from the Eucharist, which is also bread from heaven.

Giants and walls barred the entrance to the promised land. Satan and his legions attempt to bar us from heaven.

The first city of God was Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is a city in heaven.

David, king of Israel, slew Goliath. Jesus, descendant of David, King of the Universe, destroys Satan.

Before we wrap up, we want to discuss the concept of covenant and how it relates to law and sacrifice all of which are very important themes in the Old Testament.

A covenant is a type of unbreakable promise. For example, it has been said that marriage is a covenant relationship. Unfortunately, humans are imperfect beings and the permanence of a human covenant is not what it ought to be. For purposes, we are talking about a covenant relationship between God and His people. Even when the people go astray, God never abandons the promises he made in that covenant relationship.

Let’s look at some examples. God made a company with Noah. God made a covenant with Noah after the flood. In Genesis 9:9-13, we read, “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.” God added: “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

By the way, I once asked a Christian friend of mine, “The story implies that prior to the flood, there had never been a rainbow in the sky. But you understand the science of light refraction. You know what causes rainbows. How do you reconcile this?” He said that before the flood, it had never rained in all of human history. Genesis 2 says that the Garden of Eden, and presumably everything else, was watered by a spring welling up out of the ground. Okay. Agreed to disagree. Back on topic.

The most famous covenant of the Old Testament was between God and Abram (who later changed his name to Abraham). We read in Genesis 17:1-8

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” When Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.”

Throughout Exodus chapters 19-23, it speaks of the covenant God had with Moses. For example, in Exodus 19:5, we read, “Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant,* you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine.” When it says, “obey me completely,” it means “follow my laws.”

Covenants are ratified by sacrifice. Sacrifices are significant to the Jewish people. As examples, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son, Isaac, until God intervened and told him that he did not have to.

Moses offered a sacrifice, as we read in Exodus 24:4-8. “Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, ‘All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.’ Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.’”

Whenever a covenant sacrifice was offered, the community would consume the sacrificed animal. For example, in the Passover, you would eat the sacrificial lamb.

Finally, in the New Testament, we learn that Jesus establishes a new covenant, which is ratified by his own sacrifice on the cross. In Luke 22:19-20, it says, “Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.’”

Similarly, we consume that sacrifice when we receive the Eucharist.

I think back to my dear friend father Paul. When he talked about the Old Testament, he would often devote an entire lesson to the concepts we have discussed here, such as covenant and sacrifice. He also developed two lessons on the Mass. One was called “The Mass as a Sacrifice,” and the other “The Mass as a Meal,” which explored these topics in more depth. If I go beyond the four lessons that I used to teach on Scripture, I will talk a bit more about the Mass from a theological perspective, but not quite to the depth that Fr. Paul used to cover it. We have just barely scratched the surface of these topics.

That’s enough for this episode. In our next episode, we will further explore ways to make the Old Testament relevant to us today by examining the Old Testament prophets and comparing them to modern-day prophetic figures. That will probably wrap up our brief look at the Old Testament.

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