Biblical Studies 1 LEARNING STRAND: SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND 12E TEACHER GUIDE THE LOGO The logo is an attempt to express Faith as an inward and outward journey. This faith journey takes us into our own hearts, into the heart of the world and into the heart of Christ who is God’s love revealed. In Christ, God transforms our lives. We can respond to his love for us by reaching out and loving one another. The circle represents our world. White, the colour of light, represents God. Red is for the suffering of Christ. Red also represents the Holy Spirit. Yellow represents the risen Christ. The direction of the lines is inwards except for the cross, which stretches outwards. Our lives are embedded in and dependent upon our environment (green and blue) and our cultures (patterns and textures). Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, is represented by the blue and white pattern. The blue also represents the Pacific… Annette Hanrahan RSCJ Cover: St. Luke the Evangelist. Fresco detail. BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM UNDERSTANDING FAITH YEAR 12 This book is the Teacher Guide to the following topic in the UNDERSTANDING FAITH series 12E BIBLICAL STUDIES I TEACHER GUIDE Copyright 2005 by National Centre for Religious Studies No part of this document may be reproduced in any way, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, without prior permission of the publishers. Imprimatur: † Colin D Campbell DD Bishop of Dunedin Conference Deputy for Religious Studies March 2005 Authorised by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference Published by: National Centre for Religious Studies Catholic Centre P O Box 1937 Wellington New Zealand Printed by: Printlink 33-43 Jackson Street Petone Private Bag 39996 Wellington Mail Centre Lower Hutt 5045 Māori terms are italicised in the text. The first time a Māori term occurs its English meaning appears in brackets after it. A Māori glossary at the back of the book gives a more detailed explanation of these terms and provides a guide for their pronunciation. CONTENTS Introduction to the Topic ................................................................................................... 2 Part One: God’s Revelation ............................................................................. 19 Part Two: What is the Bible? ........................................................................... 23 Part Three: What is in the Bible? ....................................................................... 40 Part Four: Interpreting the Bible ...................................................................... 59 Part Five: Introduction to the Gospel According to Luke ............................. 70 Part Six: Infancy Narratives in the Gospel According to Luke ................... 83 Part Seven: Some Important Themes in the Gospel According to Luke (I) ...... 99 Part Eight: Some Important Themes in the Gospel According to Luke (II) ....108 Part Nine: Some Important Themes in the Gospel According to Luke (III)... 114 Part Ten: An Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature ................................... 120 Part Eleven: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation ................................... 128 Part Twelve: Symbols in the Book of Revelation ...............................................145 Part Thirteen: The Meaning of the Book of Revelation Today ........................... 156 Glossary of General Terms ...........................................................................................167 Glossary of Māori Terms .................................................................................................177 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................180 TOPIC 12E: BIBLICAL STUDIES I LEARNING STRAND: SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC This book contains teacher material and resources for classroom use – including OHT masters and supplementary articles, as well as activities and tasks that can be photocopied – for Topic 12E “Biblical Studies I” which is included in the Scripture and Tradition Strand of the Understanding Faith programme at year twelve. The study of topics in the Scripture and Tradition Strand is intended to enhance students’ understanding of the nature and significance of sacred Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church in passing on God’s self- revelation in Hehu Karaiti (Jesus Christ). The material in this guide should be read alongside the following: • The Religious Education Curriculum Statement for Catholic Secondary Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand • The student resource book for Topic 12E “Biblical Studies I” • The supplementary material and activities on the website Throughout the ages, the Church has always regarded the Bible as a unique meeting place between God and people, an unfailing source of nourishment and strength for believers: In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God”. “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 104) Central to any understanding and appreciation of the unique place that writings of the Bible have within the Jewish and Christian traditions is the recognition that Scripture is Te Kupu a Te Ariki (the Word of God) written in human words: God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” “For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 105) 2 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 106) The Catholic Church stresses the importance of interpreting Scripture according to its authors’ intentions and in the light of the various contexts – religious, social, cultural, and literary – in which it was written: In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. “For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 110) An important intention of the present topic is to enable students to recognise that the Bible is God’s book, since its writers were inspired by Te Atua (God) to use their own human talents to present the Word of God. It also seeks to develop in students an understanding of how God used these human authors to convey the message of salvation. The topic begins, therefore, by providing a general background to various aspects of Scripture that are related to this broad theme – the meaning of divine Revelation, the relationship between Scripture and Church Tradition, the processes which over time produced the various scriptural writings, the literary genre found in Scripture, and the nature of biblical truth. During the course of this topic it is important that teachers emphasise with students the need for a correct understanding of the nature of Biblical truth. For the inability to accept that the Bible – God’s inspired Word expressed in human language – is also the product of human authors who wrote according to their own personal understandings and within the framework of the particular cultures and periods of time in which they lived, leads some Christians to adopt a fundamentalist stance towards Scripture. The Catholic approach, however, recognises that the Bible is concerned primarily with religious and moral truth and that a correct understanding of its message should not to be tied to the literal. The Church readily acknowledges that in matters of historical, scientific and geographical detail the Bible is often inaccurate. At the heart of this topic is the study of two sacred texts, the Gospel According to Luke and the Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse. These are examined in some depth and serve as models for the study of other biblical texts. Each of these works possesses its own intrinsic worth, but also poses serious challenges to contemporary readers – for 3 example, the interpretation of the infancy narratives in Luke’s Gospel or the apocalyptic vision presented in the Book of Revelation. LINKS WITH OTHER TOPICS IN UNDERSTANDING FAITH Clearly, the present topic does not attempt to cover all aspects of Scripture. It builds on material studied and understandings gained in previous topics of the Understanding Faith programme, leading on directly from Topic 11F “Understanding the Gospel Story” which dealt with literary genre and biblical truth in relation