In January I started systematically reading through the Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church. For this I have to thank Amanda. In January she made a blog post saying it would be great if she did this and then asking "Who's with me?!" I said, "I should do this as well." A couple of months later, we talked and discovered both of us were weeks behind schedule and had effectively stopped. So we decided to talk on a weekly basis to make sure both of us were staying on track.
The program we are following goes through the entire Bible (even those books our Protestant friends do not acknowledge) and Catechism in a year. However, since we are overachievers, we are on track to finish two months ahead of time.
There are a few parts of the Old Testament I do not recommend reading. The first eight chapters of First Chronicles are genealogy tables. A lot of Leviticus and Deuteronomy repeat the same procedures when relating laws.
The biggest thing that struck me about the Old Testament is that it could have used several good editors. Things are repeated, identical stories are told about different people, and the details of stories are contradicted in later retellings. There are also a few points where verses or chapters of one book would fit very nicely a few chapters earlier or later or even in a different book. The notes in my version even say sections are best read in a different order. However, there are some great names like Shamgar.
From my reading I am also disappointed. My parents paid good money to send me to 12 years of Catholic school and it never covered some good things in the Bible. Have you read the book of Tobit? It is a great story with a wonderful message. It has a demonic possession, an angel masquerading as a person, and some magical uses for a fish. Then at the end it rewards a person for his almsgiving and risking his life to selflessly help people. Joshua walking around Jericho with people blowing horns has nothing on the book of Tobit.
There is a second reason I am bringing this up. To talk to Amanda, I have been using Skype. If you have never used it, you should give it a try. You can video call people for free.
I would suggest any of you who would like to talk (especially my friend who hits the ignore button when I call) email me some times that you are available and we can plan a video call. I only sign in to Skype when I plan to talk to someone, so if I am signed in I am busy.
I've been wanting to post about this, too! Thank goodness we teamed up, or it would not be happening. Even though some of the books are pretty boring/irrelevant, the little treasures that pop up and surprise me make it worth it. :-) And, it's great to get your perspective as we go through it, further enriching the process.
ReplyDeleteSkype is awesome. My mom and I Skyped multiple times per week when I was in DC. It was so much better than a phone call, because we could read one another's faces. Plus, I have terrible cell phone reception in my current bedroom, and dropped calls are sooo frustrating.
You often have comments on things I completely missed and your translation has some key words that are different.
ReplyDeleteTerrible reception and dropped calls in your bedroom? That almost sounds like my Skype problems.