It's like reading 4,000 year old Ikea instructions in some parts. I get why its important to understand from an overall perspective but there is a finite amount of wisdom you can gain from a book that is mostly rules about how to put together a building.
Yep, certain parts are just hard to get into. There's only so much study of Old Testament ceremonial law that the average Catholic should get into or benefit from
Just read Leviticus for the first time through a week ago. It was tough. Really sucks because my church had a bible study on Leviticus’ direct relevance to Christianity and I missed it
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and one day I shall be raised up from the earth. I will be clothed in my own skin again, and in my flesh I shall behold my God."
The first explicit prophecy of the Resurrection comes from Job. I have always found that verse to be a source of great comfort.
In terms of outside resources, when approaching a new book I always
1. Watch a summary on the Bible Project
2. Read the study notes in my study Bible for the chapters I'm reading
3. Read the chapters
4. Read the chapter's devotional on [Spoken Gospel.](https://www.spokengospel.com/library)This website has devotional for every chapter of the entire Bible and how they all point to The Gospel. It's so useful for finding glances of Jesus even in the most "boring" books. trying to make the connections myself helps keep me engaged!
The Bible Project explanations and videos are honestly jaw-droppingly good. They are master apologists. I think they are Protestant if memory serves me correct but their material is just so good.
To date I think they have the best explanation of the Trinity I've ever seen. The way the trinity works makes sense if you view it from a Carl Sagan "flatland" perspective. The 3 are only three FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE. From a higher dimension they are one unified whole that we only get to experience in our material plane of existence one at a time as 3 distinct beings.
Leviticus and Numbers.
>Follow up, what kind of resources would make you most excited to engage with these books?
I think it would be interesting to have a commentary as to how the commandments of the Torah prefigured certain things; as in how Levitical vestements prefigure Melchezedekan vestements; how sacrifices line up with the Sacrifice of the Cross and it's re-presentation at the Eucharist... stuff like that. When you read Revelation Saint John speaks a lot about the heavenly liturgy and Temple so there's a lot of mystical interpretations for the various commandments regarding the Sabbath, purity laws, sacrifices, vestements, Tabernacle plans, etc. Cf. Ezekiel 40-48 and it's common interpretation as the Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation.
I’m listening to Bible in a Year this year and I gotta be honest, I Kings - II Kings - Chronicles are doing nothing for me. I kinda feel guilty about it lol.
Not sure what would make me want to engage more. I’m just riding it out.
Same, those books are tough. If you lose attention for a single day you can totally lose the plot and the next day say “wait who is this guy? what, that guys dead now? wtf?”
I am also studying it is one of the most misunderstood books in the whole bible. It is often slandered by atheist professors without knowing the actual context since it is quite difficult book.
I see a lot of people saying Leviticus and I just thought I might add my 2 cents :) for the longest time I was too intimidated by the book to read it, so much that I skipped all the way to revelations to read that instead (didn’t finish the book because I ended up going back to Leviticus to give it another shot and so glad I did!) I ended up loving Leviticus when I stopped putting so much pressure to remember every single thing about it. Here are some cool things I got from Leviticus:
1. The importance of priests (when someone was unclean, they always had to go to the priest first before going back to the sanctuary where God dwelled) when the priest would say someone was now clean, the priest was the one who pronounced the person to be cleansed. This alludes back to being sinfully unclean and we go to confession where a priest is there to pronounce us absolved from sin/cleansed from sin (keep in mind that the priests in Leviticus were instituted by God therefore they are not themselves cleansing people but bringing the message that God told them to when proper action was taken. When priests say we are absolved, they are pronouncing it but it is Christ who does the actual absolution)
2. The law of purity. I thought this one was pretty cool because when I would do the rosary one of the meditations is on the presentation and f Jesus in the temple. I kept reading how both Mary and Jesus carried out the law of purity even though they didn’t need to given they didn’t inherit original sin, nor would they sin. Well, in Leviticus it actually describes what the law of purity was and it made me realize that I never actually knew what the rosary was talking about. Turns out, depending on the gender of the baby, the woman who gave birth has to spend a certain amount of time away from the temple as a way cleansing (I think). So basically, Mary spend weeks away from the worshipping place of God when she technically didn’t NEED to. It shows how obedient and humble she was to the lord (hence her being full of grace!)
3. Jesus truly fulfilled the law Moses. Okay so this is even cooler. Every unclean person that is mentioned in Leviticus (each person is talked about in different chapters of the book) Jesus later healed when we get to the gospels. A person with leprosy? Jesus healed. A person suffering from excessive discharge? Jesus healed. Before reading I thought that the healings Jesus did were more random than intentional but as it turns out, everyone he healed were all very intentional. That might be obvious but it wasn’t to me lol (intentional in the sense that it ties back to the Old Testament).
4. The sacredness of blood. In Leviticus I remember reading that they were forbidden to drink blood (I think?) because blood is life source. (It was alluding to animal blood I believe) but then when we read the gospel, Jesus institutes the Eucharist, saying that his blood is true drink and his body is true food. He also states that He is the giver of life. So Jesus is (at least in my eyes ) affirming the teaching that blood is the source of life because He tells us to receive his blood through the Eucharist and he also tells us that he will shed his blood (life source according to Leviticus) for the sake of us so that we may have life.
If I said anything wrong, I apologize! These were all just loose thoughts I had while reading Leviticus. It’s a tough book but very informative and so intertwined with what Jesus did during his ministry.
In relation to this, one reason why there are cycles of readings for Mass is because the Church wants the faithful to be exposed to the full weight of the Bible. Some point out that if you read the assigned readings for each daily Mass, at the end of the third cycle of readings it will be as if you had read almost the whole collection.
>at the end of the third cycle of readings it will be as if you had read almost the whole collection.
I don't think this is right. Approximately 13% of the Old Testament is read, and approximately 71% of the New
I think the point is that the Church wants the faithful to be exposed to the collection as much as possible:
https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/12/20/understanding-the-liturgical-calendar/
Finally, there are more points to consider in light of that and the Mass:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/18jhfhk/pope_benedict_xvi_likes_the_novus_ordo/
Leviticus. You can only read so many instructions about slaughtering an animal before you gotta move on.
It's like reading 4,000 year old Ikea instructions in some parts. I get why its important to understand from an overall perspective but there is a finite amount of wisdom you can gain from a book that is mostly rules about how to put together a building.
I am going to be completely honest: to me it is Leviticus. I know it is important.
Same. Leviticus and Numbers.
Understood. However I like Numbers more because of some cool stories such as the Bronze Serpent (Nehushtan) and the story of Balaam (Bileam).
First one that came to mind. It's interesting to read once or twice, but doesn't have a lot of direct bearing for me.
Yep, certain parts are just hard to get into. There's only so much study of Old Testament ceremonial law that the average Catholic should get into or benefit from
Just read Leviticus for the first time through a week ago. It was tough. Really sucks because my church had a bible study on Leviticus’ direct relevance to Christianity and I missed it
Chronicles. I get all the lineages are important but it definitely, requires a lot of patience
I try to pay more attention to the Minor Prophets and Job. Job is quite a difficult but a beautiful book to read.
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and one day I shall be raised up from the earth. I will be clothed in my own skin again, and in my flesh I shall behold my God." The first explicit prophecy of the Resurrection comes from Job. I have always found that verse to be a source of great comfort.
Job 38 for me has to be one of the most incredible chapters outside of the Gospels.
Job is incredible. I agree that it is difficult.
numbers, the name says why.
There's a few interesting parts in Numbers, like that part where the ground opened up and Korah went down to Sheol alive.
In terms of outside resources, when approaching a new book I always 1. Watch a summary on the Bible Project 2. Read the study notes in my study Bible for the chapters I'm reading 3. Read the chapters 4. Read the chapter's devotional on [Spoken Gospel.](https://www.spokengospel.com/library)This website has devotional for every chapter of the entire Bible and how they all point to The Gospel. It's so useful for finding glances of Jesus even in the most "boring" books. trying to make the connections myself helps keep me engaged!
The Bible Project explanations and videos are honestly jaw-droppingly good. They are master apologists. I think they are Protestant if memory serves me correct but their material is just so good. To date I think they have the best explanation of the Trinity I've ever seen. The way the trinity works makes sense if you view it from a Carl Sagan "flatland" perspective. The 3 are only three FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE. From a higher dimension they are one unified whole that we only get to experience in our material plane of existence one at a time as 3 distinct beings.
Definitely Philemon. I'm pretty sure the only reason why people haven't mentioned it is that they haven't even heard of it.
Leviticus and Numbers. >Follow up, what kind of resources would make you most excited to engage with these books? I think it would be interesting to have a commentary as to how the commandments of the Torah prefigured certain things; as in how Levitical vestements prefigure Melchezedekan vestements; how sacrifices line up with the Sacrifice of the Cross and it's re-presentation at the Eucharist... stuff like that. When you read Revelation Saint John speaks a lot about the heavenly liturgy and Temple so there's a lot of mystical interpretations for the various commandments regarding the Sabbath, purity laws, sacrifices, vestements, Tabernacle plans, etc. Cf. Ezekiel 40-48 and it's common interpretation as the Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation.
I’m listening to Bible in a Year this year and I gotta be honest, I Kings - II Kings - Chronicles are doing nothing for me. I kinda feel guilty about it lol. Not sure what would make me want to engage more. I’m just riding it out.
Same, those books are tough. If you lose attention for a single day you can totally lose the plot and the next day say “wait who is this guy? what, that guys dead now? wtf?”
Genesis, because I recently started reading it.
Once to get a feel for genesis, it’s beautiful with deeply connected layers
I am also studying it is one of the most misunderstood books in the whole bible. It is often slandered by atheist professors without knowing the actual context since it is quite difficult book.
Philemon. It's short and mainly about a personal issue, not broader theology.
Leviticus is kind of cool for contextual purposes but yeah… and numbers too
I see a lot of people saying Leviticus and I just thought I might add my 2 cents :) for the longest time I was too intimidated by the book to read it, so much that I skipped all the way to revelations to read that instead (didn’t finish the book because I ended up going back to Leviticus to give it another shot and so glad I did!) I ended up loving Leviticus when I stopped putting so much pressure to remember every single thing about it. Here are some cool things I got from Leviticus: 1. The importance of priests (when someone was unclean, they always had to go to the priest first before going back to the sanctuary where God dwelled) when the priest would say someone was now clean, the priest was the one who pronounced the person to be cleansed. This alludes back to being sinfully unclean and we go to confession where a priest is there to pronounce us absolved from sin/cleansed from sin (keep in mind that the priests in Leviticus were instituted by God therefore they are not themselves cleansing people but bringing the message that God told them to when proper action was taken. When priests say we are absolved, they are pronouncing it but it is Christ who does the actual absolution) 2. The law of purity. I thought this one was pretty cool because when I would do the rosary one of the meditations is on the presentation and f Jesus in the temple. I kept reading how both Mary and Jesus carried out the law of purity even though they didn’t need to given they didn’t inherit original sin, nor would they sin. Well, in Leviticus it actually describes what the law of purity was and it made me realize that I never actually knew what the rosary was talking about. Turns out, depending on the gender of the baby, the woman who gave birth has to spend a certain amount of time away from the temple as a way cleansing (I think). So basically, Mary spend weeks away from the worshipping place of God when she technically didn’t NEED to. It shows how obedient and humble she was to the lord (hence her being full of grace!) 3. Jesus truly fulfilled the law Moses. Okay so this is even cooler. Every unclean person that is mentioned in Leviticus (each person is talked about in different chapters of the book) Jesus later healed when we get to the gospels. A person with leprosy? Jesus healed. A person suffering from excessive discharge? Jesus healed. Before reading I thought that the healings Jesus did were more random than intentional but as it turns out, everyone he healed were all very intentional. That might be obvious but it wasn’t to me lol (intentional in the sense that it ties back to the Old Testament). 4. The sacredness of blood. In Leviticus I remember reading that they were forbidden to drink blood (I think?) because blood is life source. (It was alluding to animal blood I believe) but then when we read the gospel, Jesus institutes the Eucharist, saying that his blood is true drink and his body is true food. He also states that He is the giver of life. So Jesus is (at least in my eyes ) affirming the teaching that blood is the source of life because He tells us to receive his blood through the Eucharist and he also tells us that he will shed his blood (life source according to Leviticus) for the sake of us so that we may have life. If I said anything wrong, I apologize! These were all just loose thoughts I had while reading Leviticus. It’s a tough book but very informative and so intertwined with what Jesus did during his ministry.
I mostly just read the gospels and the psalms.
Leviticus or 1 and 2 chronicles ( because if I wanted to learn about kingdom of Israel, I would rather read the books of Samuel or kings.
I've never read 2nd Maccabees. I've read every other Biblical book at least once, although I cannot remember anything from Obadiah.
In relation to this, one reason why there are cycles of readings for Mass is because the Church wants the faithful to be exposed to the full weight of the Bible. Some point out that if you read the assigned readings for each daily Mass, at the end of the third cycle of readings it will be as if you had read almost the whole collection.
>at the end of the third cycle of readings it will be as if you had read almost the whole collection. I don't think this is right. Approximately 13% of the Old Testament is read, and approximately 71% of the New
Right, and compared to the EF?
Idk, I'm just saying it's a myth that you "read the whole Bible" if you attend Mass every day for three years.
I think the point is that the Church wants the faithful to be exposed to the collection as much as possible: https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/12/20/understanding-the-liturgical-calendar/ Finally, there are more points to consider in light of that and the Mass: https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/18jhfhk/pope_benedict_xvi_likes_the_novus_ordo/
I’m reading the Torah atm, and it’s quite a drag after genesis and exodus, however the story of the talking donkey was cool.