3 religion essays

Intro to Unit 3 & Covenant How the Covenants Begin to Heal the Effects of Sin

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Overview In this presentation we will look at:

An overview of the unit;

Covenant in the Ancient World and the uniqueness of the Hebrew Covenant;

Creation and Sin Stories as showing the need for a Covenant;

Covenant is implicit in Creation;

The first explicit covenant is with Noah;

The Covenant with Abraham

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Unit 3 Unit 3 focuses on the Old Testament Covenants as found in chapters 3 and 4 of the textbook:

Creation; Noah; Abraham; Sinai; and David

Each Covenant builds on the one before it. And the word covenant is also translated as testament

We will also look at the Exile in Babylon to see how the Jewish understanding of Covenant included a Messiah

The Unit will end with an examination of the incarnation and Mary’s perpetual virginity

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Covenant in the Ancient World

The Covenants Not one but many Testament is a synonym for covenant

The textbook reminds us that: People did not enter a Covenant lightly. A Covenant was not an ‘If Agreement’.

They ‘cut’ a covenant. Parties ‘cutting the covenant’ then walked between the animals. [This action declared], ‘Let the same happen to me if I break this Covenant.’

Thus a Covenant was an irrevocable ‘commitment.’

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Covenant in the Ancient World

A Covenant was an agreement between two or more people In the ancient world, a covenant was an agreement for:

Business, Marriage, and any social contract Government between King and People

A Covenant listed the obligations for each member

Rules or laws measured how to act A god was often called to witness the covenant

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The Uniqueness of the Hebrew Covenant

Israel’s covenant was unique

God initiated the covenant and would be their King

This is the foundation for understanding Israel’s covenant with God.

“I will be your God and you will be my people” (Ex 6:7; Lev 26:12; Rev 21:3)

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Creation & Sin Stories show why a Covenant is needed

God’s creative act is that He gives each thing an independent existence and sustains all things in existence.

This mystery of the intimacy of God and His otherness (not a thing in creation) is implicitly present in creation.

The sin stories showed that the world was “Torahless”: what is implicit must become explicit. (Col 1:26)

What is implicit in creation will be build upon until the New Covenant of the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery.

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Covenant is Implicit in Creation

Providence is the implicit covenant with creation In His providence, God does two things:

Allows a thing to act by its nature; Leads those with a rational nature.

We are designed to seek by our nature, by our existence, what we do not know. “He made from one the whole human race, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’” (Acts 17:26-28)

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The first Explicit Covenant is with Noah

Adam and Eve fear God and God promises a Messiah Cain is fearful as an outlaw and God protects him Noah is about people being Torahless (Gen 6:11)

The covenant with Noah is semi-explicit God promises all creation that God will not destroy evil because of the good

Babel is about confused people trying to replace God Each sin story shows we do not know how to walk with God; we need rules or someone to teach us how

Noah showed that even the righteous fall. We need God to teach us how to walk with God.

Thus the creation and sin stories lay the foundation for the rest of Scripture and our life of faith.

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Catechism Quotes on the Creation & Sin Stories 289 Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of creation—its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the “beginning”: creation, fall, and promise of salvation.

385 The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.

389 The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the “reverse side” of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.

How to read the account of the Fall

390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.

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The Covenant with Abraham

The many covenants rest on the Abrahamic covenant--to walk with God What it means to walk with God develops in the Hebrew understanding (thus the many covenants)

Abraham--changed from Abram - Walks with God (12:1-4 & 17:1) God promises descendants, a people, and that all people will find blessing (12:3)

God makes the covenant with Abram (Gen 15:1-18) God promises Abram an heir--stars Abram puts his faith in God--righteousness Split animals--sign of a covenant, may this happen to me if the covenant is broken God passes through the fire Abram is in a sleep

Like Adam at the creation of Eve Something new is being created--Covenant

Like creation, from darkness to light

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The Covenant with Abraham Genesis 22

Take your son Isaac, whom you love

Three days to the Mount

Later Rabbis thought this was Zion

The Son carries the wood for the sacrifice

Child sacrifice is held as an abomination because God stops Abraham

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Covenant Summary

Covenants were very serious, they were cut

Israel’s Covenant with God is unparalleled in the Ancient World

The implicit Covenant with creation grows to become explicit in Noah

Abraham is a Covenant for all nations to find blessing

These Covenants will continue to be built on until the New and Eternal Covenant is established in Christ

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