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The Bible is primarily a book of remembrance. Remembrance is important to both Jews and Christians (Hebrew Zekar; Greek Anamnesis). The Jews remember God's saving hand, especially in the Exodus. Christians recall that at the table of the Lord, on the night before he died, Jesus took bread, broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor 11:25).

The bible is a faith record of a people-- their triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows, faith and disbelief. The bible did not record these events with a camera or tape. God's saving works were communicated orally for centuries, by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Ancient cultures were based on oral tradition with a memory much better than ours. Stories were remembered, especially when there were no reference books or libraries such as we have today. Later, these stories were re-interpreted in light of the people's current circumstances and eventually these stories were written down. The events took on meaning because of the people's faith in God's revelation.

The Bible took shape over a long period of time. The writings of many individuals with distinct voices each had a unique contribution. The result is a composite work, which is not completely uniform, so that the various parts do not always fit together perfectly. For instance there are two somewhat different versions of the same story, for example: the Creation, the Flood, Abraham's and Moses' call. The editors saw no need to blend the stories, but simply laid one alongside the other, much as Grandma's quilt was put together piece by piece, giving it the character it has today.

The first five books of the Bible -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy -- form a distinct group. The Jews know them as Torah, or "The Law." Another name for these books is the Pentateuch (Greek for "the five books"). These books are the founding charter of the nation of Israel, and at their heart, is the story of how God chose Israel. These books were given their final form about 400 BCE, but they deal with events that took place many hundreds of years before that date. What we now have is the end product of a long process of experiencing the event, proclaiming what was handed down, writing and editing.

Maps are another way of understanding the Bible. Over the thousands of years of Biblical history, God's people have been on the move almost constantly. From a historical perspective, the saga begins with Abraham, who emerges from the city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia -- the land between the rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, what is called the "Cradle of Civilization." 
This is the same area we find in the story of Adam and Eve:

A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches. The names of the rivers are the Pishon, the Gihon and the Tigris and Euphrates (Gen 2:10-14).

CREATION
The opening chapters of the Bible are not a scientific or historical account of creation, but a theological account. Adam and Eve personify the human race that chose sin over God's providence and suffered the consequences. The story attempts to describe why we experience evil and disorder in a world that God made good. The stories God's faithfulness and our unfaithfulness recur again and again throughout the entire Bible. The accounts of creation in Genesis are filled with symbols such as: earth, clay, potter, water, river, garden, tree, fruit, serpent, man and woman, husband and wife. Symbols are capable of communicating truth on a deeper level than ordinary language. These stories reveal the deepest truth about the world and about ourselves. Though these are symbolic stories, at some level they may be factual as well. The story of the deluge in Noah and the Ark could be based on some catastrophe that really happened.

QUESTION: If Adam and Eve only had two sons, and Cain killed his brother Abel (Gen. 4:1-16), where did Cain's wife come from? Did Adam and Eve have other children? Did Cain marry his sister?

ANSWER: As said previously, the Bible is not a science book nor is it a book of history. The story of Adam and Eve is meant to teach us about free will, and human choice of sin. Adam's name is a play on words. God took adama (Hebrew for "earth") and fashioned "the first man," ha adam'.  Eve's name, Chavvah, means the "mother of all living." Together they are an archetype to represent the first human beings. This means that God is the source of all human life.

COVENANT
The words "Old Covenant" sounds outdated and no longer useful. The "New Covenant," or New  Testament, was not meant to supplant the old, but to fulfill it.

"If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine (Exodus 19:5).

Abraham and his family leave Ur and head northwest to Haran at the apex of what is still known as the Fertile Crescent. Anyone traveling from Mesopotamia to Egypt, or any land bordering the Mediterranean, was required to make that trek. The only alternative was straight across the Arabian desert, hundreds of miles of barren lava beds and stony wastelands. At Haran, Abraham (then known as Abram), received a call from God:

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the LORD had told him (Genesis 12:1-4a).

QUESTION: How does your faith journey compare to Abraham's? Do you go as the Lord directs you?

Abraham's destination is a land called Canaan. Insignificant in size, this narrow strip of land, part of the Fertile Crescent, became the center of Biblical history. What made Canaan important is its location, bordered by the Mediterranean (Great) Sea on the West and a vast expanse of desert to the east. Canaan was a natural land bridge, linking Egypt to the southwest with a parade of superpowers from the north, east and west. This was the "promised land," referred to as a "land of milk and honey" (Ex 3:8). Abraham would never own much of it, only a burial plot at Hebron for he and his wife Sarah, their sons Isaac and Jacob and their wives.

The story of Abraham begins with a promise of a "land" and numerous descendants, but it ends with the sad fact that his wife, Sarah, was barren. That would seem to be the end of the story were it not for Abraham's "belief, trust and obedience." These words make up what the Bible calls, "faith." Abraham as a model of faith has inspired believers throughout the ages -- Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. . . . By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10).

QUESTION: What does this text say to you about your own faith?

Our attention shifts to Isaac's son Jacob who took advantage of his twin brother Esau in order to gain the rights of the firstborn (Gn 25:19-34), a feud between blood brothers that continues with the Israelis and Palestinians today. Jacob was not only the heir of God's promise to Abraham and Isaac, but also one who personally encountered God. In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled with God at the ford of the river Jabbok. In this encounter, Jacob's name was changed to "Israel" ("the man who saw God"). He became the father of twelve sons, the twelve patriarchs from whom the twelve tribes of Israel descended. If we "wrestle" with the word of God, in the process we are changed and are never the same again.

The last part of the book of Genesis concerns the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel, especially Joseph, and how the people ended up living in Egypt. The story begins with Joseph's brothers who are jealous of their father's love for their younger brother. They sell Joseph to passing merchants who take him to Egypt. In Egypt, because of Joseph's ability to interpret the Pharaoh's dreams, he is promoted to be the chief minister of Pharaoh (about 1720 BCE).

When famine drove Joseph's brothers to seek food in Egypt, Joseph recognized them, although they did not recognize him. Joseph revealed himself to them, "I am your brother Joseph." The story involves loss and restoration, injury and forgiveness, estrangement and reconciliation, key themes throughout the Bible, as well as our lives. The story ends with a statement of God's ability to bring good out of evil: 

"Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good to achieve his present end"
(Gn 50:20).

QUESTION: What does this text mean to you personally?

EXODUS
A four century journey that began happily ended disastrously in slavery in Egypt. Moses, liberator and lawgiver, was called by God to lead his people on their most famous journey, the Exodus. The book of Exodus is the key to understanding the Hebrew scriptures. It is this experience that gave the Jews their own purpose and identity as the "People of God." The liberation of God's people from slavery profoundly affected Israel. When the people wanted to understand other events, they looked back to the Exodus. 

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:1-8a).

QUESTION: Does this text say anything to you about your own call to serve God? What does it mean to stand on "holy ground"?

Moses went to the Pharaoh and said, "Set my people free," but it would take the mighty works of God in ten plagues to convince Pharaoh to release the people. The last plague, the death of the first born, overcame his resistance. On the evening of the last plague, the Hebrews were told to slaughter a lamb, sprinkle their doorposts with blood, eat in haste, ready for departure. Death, which touched the firstborn of the Egyptians, passed-over the houses of the Hebrew slaves. The Jews continue to celebrate this event with the Passover Feast. Our Christian Eucharist is the new "Passover," the death of God's first born, Christ, and our liberation from the bondage of sin through his death. The Jewish Passover ritual says: "Each one of you, from generation to generation, must feel as if you yourself has come out of Egypt, for it is written: On that day, the day on which the departure from Egypt is celebrated, say to your children: 'That is why the Lord intervened for me, when I came out of Egypt.'"

The escape from Egypt took place about 1250. But the people's rejoicing turned to despair when confronted by the wilderness where they were faced with the fundamental need of food and water. In the desert, God gave them water from a rock and Manna from heaven. The people were told to gather only enough for each day and trust in God provision for their daily bread. Jesus will say, "I am the living water -- whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again" (Jn 4:13-14), and "I am the living bread come down from heaven. You who eat of this bread will never die" (Jn 6:35,50). Jesus asks us to pray for our "daily bread." 

God takes the Hebrew people out of an unjust society, and teaches them how to live in freedom in a mutual contract -- a covenant of grace -- the Ten Commandments. The first three laws are for people in relationship to their God:

The next seven laws are for people in relationship to one another:

4) Honor parents 5) Honor all life - womb to tomb 6) Honor marriage 7) Honor property 8) Honor reputations 9-10) Do not covet another's home or property.

In Chapter 24, the people responded: "We will do everything that the Lord has told us." The reality was that they could not obey even the first command as shown in their worship of the "Golden Calf." The principles of the covenant help us understand what God is like. God is not just a law to be obeyed, but a presence to whom we respond. It is our choice to obey or not. The law is not enslaving -- how we relate to the law is.

QUESTION: Which commandment speaks the loudest to you today?

LEVITICUS
The Lord promised Israel that she would be a kingdom of Priests, a holy nation. The book of Leviticus reminds Israel: "Be holy, for I, the Lord; your God, am holy" (Lv 19:1). True holiness involves every aspect of our lives -- there should be no separation between "religion" and "life."

NUMBERS
The book of Numbers continues Israel's sojourn in the desert. Numbers asks, "Does Israel have sufficient numbers to possess the land?" Two censuses were taken, one at the beginning of the desert journey, and one at the end as they prepared to enter the promised land. God punished the people for their disobedience by a longer stay in the wilderness. A trip that should have taken ten to twelve days, if they went in a straight direction, took forty years of wandering aimlessly.

DEUTERONOMY
The final book in the Torah is the book of Deuteronomy, meaning Second Law. Deuteronomy is not a new code of law, but a repetition and explanation of the Law of Moses. It is presented as a series of exhortations and corrections by Moses to the people as they were about to enter the Promised Land, which Moses never entered himself. Moses did not actually write this book. If he did, he recorded his own death and burial (Ex 34). It was not uncommon in ancient days for books to be written in the name of important people, which lent the book greater authority. The book was written by the Deuteronomic "school," a current of thought and tradition that was also responsible for the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel and I & 2 Kings. These books are called "Deuteronomic History." They are also called the "Former Prophets" as they explain that the reason Israel failed to keep the land was because of their failure to keep the Law.

Read the Great Commandment
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

QUESTION: What does this commandment say about your duty to your home and family?

From Pharaoh to the Father: 
A Journey Toward Freedom 
Through The Lord's Prayer
Unpack the Lord's Prayer and experience the Exodus. It's true. If you meditate on the Lord's Prayer - beginning with the last phrase and going backwards to the first phrase - you move from the world of evil to the world of the Father. You recreate, in effect, the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt. Kay Murdy builds her provocative book on this insight, moving in eight steps from an all-too real world to intimacy with the Holy One. Along the way, she builds powerful connections between Scripture and Tradition and the Old and New Testaments. Discussion questions make this a useful tool for introducing catechumens to the Lord's Prayer.

"From Pharaoh to the Father is written in a clear and simple style. Kay Murdy teaches spiritual things spiritually, and her work deserves to be warmly welcomed as a good guide along the path of prayer and Scripture. She has the rare gift of being able to integrate Scripture, prayer, and contemporary daily living." - Joseph Glynn, ODC

Paper, $17.95  You can order my book from Resource Publication http://www.rpinet.com/products/fpf.html 

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