Creation to New Creation: The Historical Books (Joshua through Maccabees)

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Instructor

Chad Steiner

Instructor

Vern Steiner

Creation to New Creation: <em>The Historical Books</em> (Joshua through Maccabees) — *Joshua succeeding Moses*

At the heart of our course offerings is a book-by-book journey through the entire Bible, from Creation to New Creation—Genesis to Revelation. We break it up into manageable, ten-week sections and spread it out over three years. (Students are naturally not required to commit to an entire three-year program; they may take as many or as few of the ten-week sections as fit their schedules.)

This signature stream of courses is designed to familiarize the student with the overarching structure and message of the whole Bible, which is unique among the holy books of the various religions because it comprises two testaments, and thus speaks to us in two different “registers” rather than one. So this stream of courses focuses specifically on two questions:

How does each book contribute to and interact with its own Testament? (For example, how does the book of Isaiah affect the overall message of the Old Testament, which begins with Genesis and ends with Malachi?)

How does each book and its role in its Testament contribute to the overall message of the whole Bible? (For example, how does the message of Genesis in the Old Testament affect the meaning of the Gospel of Matthew or Luke in the New Testament?)

We continue the journey we began last Fall with the next sixteen books: Joshua—2 Maccabees. Because they recount much of the history of God’s people—from Israel’s conquest and settlement of Canaan, to their expulsion and exile from the Promised Land, to their return and resettlement in the land, to the events leading up to the birth of Christ—the books of Joshua through Maccabees are appropriately labeled the “Historical Books” of the Old Testament.

But this is no ordinary history, and it certainly is not dry, dusty, or boring. This is history of a special kind; it is God’s version (his story) of the unfolding drama centered in Christ, including key persons, important places, and events which are themselves shaped by the figure standing behind all of them. This is Jesus’ story, who fulfills its vision of prophet, priest, king, deliverer, revelatory word, and tabernacling presence of God. As he invites us to receive him, we are given occasion to conceive our own story in this world as a participation in this grander story, in which we discover what it means to be shaped increasingly by its great lessons on faith and faithfulness; surrender and obedience; exile and mission; hope, worship, and prayer; and the centrality of God’s Holy Word.

Since “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16-17), students can expect this course not only to inform their understanding of biblical history, but also to form and to transform their lives as women and men of God.

Required Texts:

Sacred Scripture, the Bible (preferably ESVCE [English Standard Version, Catholic Edition] or RSVCE 2nd edition [Revised Standard Version; Catholic Edition])
Instructor’s notes (provided and included in the registration cost)

Recommended Texts:

Bergsma, John and Brant Pitre. A Catholic Introduction to the Bible. Vol 1: The Old Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2018.
Hahn, Scott and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Joshua, Judges and Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, Tobit, Judith, and Esther. San Francisco: Ignatius.
Satterthwaite, Philip and Gordon McConville. Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Historical Books. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007.
Collett, Don. Figural Reading and the Old Testament: Theology and Practice. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2020.

This course is now available online to take at your own pace.

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Comments (Add your own)

In preparation for this course—in addition to the normal work of choosing which biblical texts throughout Joshua–Maccabees to explore as a class, and putting handouts together—I’ve begun reading Don Collett’s book, Figural Reading and the Old Testament.

Well beyond the anecdotal approach adopted by Mike Aquilina in How the Fathers Read the Bible, Don takes time to explore and explain in a careful way the relationship between figural reading and Scripture’s “literal sense,” what it means to read texts “figurally,” different models of figural reading, and the difference between ‘figure’ and ‘metaphor’ when it comes to interpreting texts theologically (‘theological exegesis’).

I expect the book’s contributions to enhance what students are learning even now in the five-week interterm course, Opening the Word: Catholics and the Bible, as well as in our ten weeks together examining various passages throughout Joshua–Maccabees, and so it will be on the recommended reading list for those who wish to taken an even deeper dive into this portion of the “Elder Testament.”

Chad, you mentioned linking some videos, in the first class, regarding some of the difficult texts of Joshua—have I missed them somewhere?

Also, I wanted to thank you for revealing Jesus in these different Old Testament encounters. My beloved looks at me “through the lattices” and that beautiful exposition you gave on Tuesday was just such moment—it was catching a glimpse of his face!

Hi Jenn,

You’ve not missed anything. Upon a revisit, I decided against posting the video links. The content of the lecture itself, “Canon and Conquest,” is quite technical—the presenter is speaking to a room full of other professors—and I worried about how meaningful it would be (or not be) for those of us for whom the heady issues he is engaging are unfamiliar.

But I will offer a few additional reflections tonight at the beginning of class that may help us to see more clearly what I take to be the necessary (canonical) background developed especially in Genesis that helps us make sense of the conquests in Joshua.

In the grace of Christ,

-Chad

Chad, I am struggling to understand 2 Sam 23:5. I went on biblehub to read the other translations of it, but it still seems mysterious to me particularly in regards to the last line and the word “desire”.

Also you mentioned David being, at the end of his life, a very humble man. I recently heard a saying of the desert fathers which was something like “the man who knows his own sinfulness is greater than he who raises the dead.” The implication, as I understand it, is knowing your own wretchedness and therefore the depths of the mercy of God is far greater than the working of signs and wonders. It seems to me that it glorifies God more. Do you think this applies to David? Did he really die with that full knowledge of his sins and failings?

Last evening, during the latter half of class, we discussed the virtues of David over against the vices of Saul. One of the most poignant episodes disclosing the heart of David comes to us in 2 Samuel 18:33, when he weeps over the death of his son, Absalom—the very son who had killed his own brother, and was scheming to turn the hearts of the people away from his father David in order to usurp the throne.

The pathos of the moment is captured beautifully by Eric Whitacre in his choral arrangement “When David Heard”, and of course by the extraordinary musicians of the Wichita State University Concert Chorale who performed it.

When David heard that Absalom was slain, he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said, “My son, my son ... Absalom! ... O Absalom!”

Jenn (#4),

2 Samuel 23:5 “For does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?”

The word ‘intention’ is well within the semantic field of Hebrew hephes, often translated ‘delight’, or ‘desire’ (as above), or (in Ecclesiastes especially) ‘matter’. We often use ‘intention’ when speaking of our “prayer intentions,” and this may help orientate our understanding of David’s words.

Some interpreters are inclined to take David’s words in the third clause of the verse as an outburst of exuberance which we “forgive,” and then interpret in spite of such exuberance, concluding that in his excitement over being assured by God of his participation in an “everlasting covenant,” he’s speaking hyperbolically.

But this approach reads verse 5c against the grain of verse 2, in which David declares:

“The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.”

Our task, then, is to hear David’s words as God’s own words in v. 5c. This is helped by reckoning that while on the whole, the desires of humanity may rightly be held in suspicion, a consistent refrain in the books of Samuel is the uprightness of David’s heart. Even when he momentarily ‘intends’ (chooses, acts) wrongly, he shows extraordinary remorse soon or immediately after.

I’ve been reflecting on the grief of David over Absalom and comparing it to Jesus weeping over Lazarus. In contemporary piety Consoling the Heart of Christ is a popular area and I wondered if there is an Old Testament foreshadowing of this? Does consoling God have a place in the Old Testament?

Hi Chad, I wondered how familiar you are with St Edith Stein? She is the Jewish born philosopher turned Carmelite nun who died in Auschwitz. She loved the book of Esther and it helped her to understand her own vocation.

“Stein saw continuities between her new Christian faith and Judaism. She once said: ” I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is a great comfort.”

“Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.”.

Her last words to her sister when the SS came to take them were “Come Rosa, let us go for our people…”

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