Journey-Lesson 1: Beginnings
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About this ebook
This is the first lesson in the Journey Bible Study Program a series of 40 lessons covering all of the books of the Bible. This series follows the order of the books as presented in the Bible. This first lesson is a presentation of the creation stories and their meaning. There is an introduction to the first six lessons of Journey. The titles given to the chapters in the lesson give a good sense of the content. Chapter 1 is called "The Great Harmony". Chapter 2 is called "The Damaged Harmony" describing the development of sin in the human heart. Chapter 3 is called "The Collapse of Creation" and this is a description of how God dealt with sin and the consequences for humanity. Chapter 4 is entitled "The Required adjustments" . This moves us from the way God contended with sin to the way humanity has to contend with the new reality. Chapter 5 is called "the Division of the Nations and its Meaning".This is a description of how sin is expressed in mankind's relationships: with God,with the other sex, between brothers and sisters, between man and society.
Marcel Gervais
About the Author Archbishop Gervais was born in Elie Manitoba on September 21 1931. He is the ninth of fourteen children. His family came from Manitoba to the Sparta area near St. Thomas Ontario when he was just a teenager. He went to Sparta Continuation School and took his final year at Saint Joseph`s High School in St. Thomas. After high school he went to study for the priesthood at St. Peter’s Seminary in London , Ontario. He was ordained in 1958. He was sent to study in Rome. This was followed by studies at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. He returned to London to teach scripture to the seminarians at St. Peter’s Seminary. In 1974 he was asked by Bishop Emmett Carter to take over as director of the Divine Word International Centre of Religious Education. This Centre had been founded by Bishop Carter to provide a resource for adult education in the spirit of Vatican II. This Centre involved sessions of one or two weeks with many of the best scholars of the time. Students came not only from Canada and the United States but from all over the globe, Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe. By the time Father Gervais became the director Divine Word Centre was already a course dominated by the study of scripture to which he added social justice. This aspect of the course of studies was presented by people from every part of the “third world”; among which were Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez and Cardinal Dery of Ghana. In 1976 the Conference of Ontario Bishops along with the Canadian conference of Religious Women approached Father Gervais to provide a written course of studies in Sacred Scripture for the Church at large, but especially for priests and religious women. This is when Fr. Gervais began to write Journey, a set of forty lessons on the Bible. He was armed with a treasure of information from all the teachers and witnesses to the faith that had lectured at Devine Word. He was assisted by a large number of enthusiastic collaborators: all the people who had made presentations at Divine Word and provided materials and a team of great assistants, also at Divine Word Centre. The work was finished just as Father Gervais was ordained an auxiliary bishop of London (1980). He subsequently was made Bishop of Sault Saint Marie Diocese, and after four years, Archbishop of Ottawa (1989). He retired in 2007, and at the time of this writing, he is enjoying retirement.
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Journey-Lesson 1 - Marcel Gervais
Journey-Lesson One-Beginnings
by Marcel Gervais, Emeritus Archbishop of the diocese of Ottawa, Canada
Nihil Obstat: Michael T. Ryan, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Imprimatur: + John M. Sherlock, Bishop of London
London, March 31, 1980
This content of this book was first published in 1977 as part of the JOURNEY Series By Guided Study Programs in the Catholic Faith and is now being republished in Smashwords by Emmaus Publications, 99 Fifth Avenue, Suite 103, Ottawa,ON, K1S 5P5, Canada on Smashwords
Cover: ... and God blessed the seventh day.
COPYRIGHT © Guided Study Programs ln the Catholic Faith, a division of The Divine Word International Centre of Religious Education 1977. Reproduction ln whole or ln part is Prohibited.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Great Harmony
Chapter 2 The Damaged Harmony
Chapter 3 The Collapse of Creation
Chapter 4 The Required Adjustments
Chapter 5 The Division of Nations and its Meaning
Answer key to practice questions
Self-test
Answer key to self-test
Recommendations for group meeting on lesson One
About the Author
Introductory Note to Lessons One to Six The Pentateuch
The Pentateuch (from the Greek, meaning five scrolls or books
) refers to the first five books of the Bible. These five books are also called the Torah or the Law. Taken together, they form the first section of the Hebrew Bible which is divided into the Law (the Pentateuch), the Prophets (historical books and the prophetic literature), and the Writings (the Psalms and the Wisdom literature).
While tradition has attributed the authorship of the Pentateuch to Moses and while Moses is the central spokesman in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, none of these books actually claim Moses as its author.
The ancient world had a very broad notion of authorship. For example, the Psalms are attributed to David even though the Book of Psalms itself designates certain psalms to other authors (see the titles of Ps 44, 80). Similarly, the Books of Wisdom are generally attributed to Solomon even though parts of these books were actually written by other authors (see Prov 30:1). It is understandable that tradition would relate the name of Moses to the Pentateuch. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy have as their historical framework the life of Moses from his birth to his death. The main content of these four books focuses on the Exodus, the Covenant and the Law. Historically Moses participated as mediator in these events and all the later developments in the Liturgy (e.g. the Passover and the Covenant renewal) and in the Law find their source in what Moses said and did. And so, while these books contain laws and prescriptions that might have been written centuries after Moses, they would not have been written without him.
The Book of Genesis, because it is preparation for the other four books, is always associated with them and considered part of the Law (Torah).
The custom of referring to the first five books of the Bible as the Books or Law of Moses is thus both understandable and legitimate. This custom is reflected, for example, in Luke 24:27, 44.
Introductory Note to Lessons One and Two Sources of the Book of Genesis
Was the Book of Genesis written all at once and by the same author? After nearly 200 years of hard work, scripture scholars have developed a theory which has now gained general acceptance by almost all Catholic, Protestant and Jewish students of the Bible. This theory dates the Book of Genesis as we now have it somewhere between 550 and 450 BC, and posits that Genesis is actually a compilation