The Bible TI251 Fall 2020

Hi! I’m Megan Kaster, I’m a freshman and majoring in pharmacy. I’m taking this course, first off, because I need my TI requirement, but second off, I want to keep learning about my faith. I’ve been studying the Catholic faith my whole life and I want to keep that going.
To me, the Bible is almost like a text book for the Catholic faith, its what we read and study to help us become better people and live the way Jesus wants us to. However, there are many things in the Bible that people don’t agree with. I don’t agree with some things that the Catholic Church teaches, because the people in the church aren’t perfect, and they can tend to interoperate things incorrectly.
The authors of the Bible is many people. For the Old Testament, it was, for many years, verbally passed down until people started to learn how to read and write. For the New Testament, it was many of Jesus’ Apostles and disciples that wrote the books down.
If you look up on google “the Bible” the first result is Wikipedia, then the next few are sites where you can buy a copy. I don’t find these sources reliable, because the internet is full of bias, and the bible can mean a thousand different ways to everyone who reads it.

December edit: I had no idea this didn’t post! I’m so sorry! It’s definitely very late, but here’s my introduction! 

Personally I find the belief of people being directly related to Jesus by blood quite absurd. Someone as holy and gifted as Jesus Christ could not possibly have any siblings. Even in the Bible John 3:16 states “He gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” since the teachings of the church are infallible, meaning there is no flaw in them. This shows that Jesus could not possibly have any siblings. Jesus was an only child who’s bloodline ended at the age of 33 with his death on the cross (Mark 15:25) and the beheading of his cousin John the Baptist. (Matthew 14:11)

I don’t think I have ever considered the notion that Jesus could have possibly had siblings, even though through the discussion in the class and otherwise, it’s brought up in the Bible. When I was growing up going to church, I just assumed Jesus was an only child to Mary and Joseph. I can’t recall a time that Jesus’ siblings were ever brought up in a church service or even in Sunday school.

There are many theories as to how Jesus could have had siblings, and also a lot of controversy. If Mary was a virgin, how would it be possible for Jesus to have other older siblings? The majority belief seems to be that they were actually Joseph’s children from other marriages, making them half siblings to Jesus. However, even this belief is controversial in society, and the majority of Christians deem to form their own opinions on the topic.

The Yale lecture talks about the diversity of early Christianity. Professor Dale Martin brings up the many different types of early Christianity’s. He brings up how they all have different views of the law. One part of the lecture that I found interesting was when Martin brought up what Luke 3:22 actually said. He discusses how some believe the text actually read “today I have begotten you” as opposed to “the beloved with you I am well pleased”. While it does not seem that important, if the text really was “today I have begotten you”, then that would mean Jesus became the Son of God instead of being born as the Son of God. This is just one example of how Christians have diverged into different beliefs, and it is why there are so many different types of Christianity’s.

Love L. Sechrest talks about Paul’s letters. She discusses how Paul’s letters were used by eighteenth century supporters of slavery. However, looking more into what Paul wrote, you can see he discussed the submission of slaves rather than actual slavery. Many slave owners would only give their slaves the section of the Bible where it was talking about slaves being submissive to their slave owners. It was a “slave Bible” rather than a full Bible. Sechrest brings up one quote from the Bible that shows all people are the same, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male and female, slave or free, but we are all one-you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).

In this class, we discussed what wisdom meant to us. When I think of wisdom, I think of someone with experience. I think of someone who is wise to be smart in all aspects. I believe they should be book’s smart, but they should also be smart in other areas of life. I think to be wise you have to have experienced different parts of life. I would imagine someone older to be wiser than someone younger, however, if a younger person had more life experience, this may not be the case. Another term brought up when looking up the definition of wisdom is having good judgement. I would agree with this as well. If one was to have a problem, then one would want to go to someone who was wise to ask their questions.

Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic talks about “The Prophets and Social Justice”. He talks about how the Biblical prophets’ main message was justice. He brings up that Moses was sent to free the people. God wanted the people to be able to act freely like He did. God frees people through Moses and other prophets. The prophets urge others to help those in need, such as widows, orphans, and oppressed people. The prophets are pushed to “demand respect for every human life”.

Chapter 1 of William G. Dever’s book Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah discusses the idea of history-writing. He talks about distinguishing the difference between historians and antiquarians. He discusses whether the writers and interpreters of the Bible were historians or antiquarians. Dever goes through the different parts of the Bible that had to be interpreted and when they were written. Dever then discusses the idea that archaeologists are “a historian of things”.

Cheryl B. Anderson discusses law and the Bible. She talks about how you really have to look at what the Bible says when talking about biblical laws. She uses the example of adultery. A man is not considered to be participating in adultery if the woman is single. This proves that these laws are not meant for current context, and there is leeway in how they should be interpreted. Anderson also points to there being two versions of the Ten Commandments, and one is written later. This proves that these laws were meant to be amended and interpreted differently as time has passed.

Dexter Callender talks about the flood stories and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story goes that Noah is told to build a boat and to put all animals and his family on the boat. The flood then destroys everything left on Earth besides those on the boat. The Epic of Gilgamesh has a similar story, but it is a flood hero who does these tasks. This flood hero receives eternal life from the gods after giving them a sacrifice. Noah does not receive eternal life in his story. Another difference is the birds in each story. The flood hero from the Epic of Gilgamesh sends out a bird three times, and Noah also sends out a dove three times. However, in the Mesopotamian story, there are three different birds sent out. All of this information together makes it seem as though these are the same story, but they are told separately with minor differences.