PENTATEUCH

The goals of this course are to read the entire Pentateuch, to memorize the structure and content of the Pentateuch, to understand the Pentateuch in relation to the whole of revelation, and to apply its message to Christian living.

The Old Testament is divided into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.

Our Lord Himself makes use of this basic division in Luke 24:44. He explains to the Apostles that His suffering, death and resurrection are the fulfillment of “the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms.” The psalms, along with the wisdom literature, are the main constituents of the writings. We will discuss this basic division further in the respective course descriptions and in the courses themselves.

The Torah is the Gospel of the Old Testament.

“The Law” (Hebrew “Torah”) or Pentateuch, contains the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It tells the story from Creation up until the People of Israel are poised to enter the Promised Land after their wandering in the desert.  This part of Scripture ranks in importance in the Old Testament as the Gospels do in the New Testament. It contains the foundational realities of God’s creation of the world and His election and formation of His people, who are, significantly, called His “firstborn son.” (Exodus 4:22). As the Gospels recount the incarnation and mission of God’s firstborn Son by nature, the Pentateuch recounts the formation and mission of God’s “firstborn son” by grace = Israel. The rest of the Old Testament, the Prophets and the Writings, are reflections on and developments of the things received in the Torah, with the Prophets being more founded in historical developments and the Writings more founded in theological developments and practical application.

There are three main problems people encounter when studying the Pentateuch

It often seems to lack:

1. Clarity: What does it even mean that “the Lord tried to kill Moses”?--Exodus 4:24)

2. Unity: Why are there two different accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 and how do they fit together?

3. Applicability: Why should Christians care which animals were forbidden as food for Israelites or about defunct sacrificial systems?

The classical approach that this Bible study takes, based on the teaching of St. Augustine in his work on interpretation of Scripture (De Doctrina Christiana) alleviates these problems in the following manner:

Step 1: Clarify: This course will spend an average of 8 lessons on each book of the Pentateuch, which allows sufficient time to deal with specific parts of the text that are obscure at the level of the words themselves and the things, places, and times that they signify. When necessary and helpful, we will have recourse to the original languages, history, geography, etc. to untie some of these knots.

Step 2: Unify: This step has two parts: (a.) reading obscure passages of Scripture in light of those that are clearer and (b.) memorization of the whole of Scripture, at least in outline. Throughout, students will be memorizing a structure and content outline of each book and of the Pentateuch as a whole. This will allow them, eventually, to fit individual parts of the story into the larger wholes of the Pentateuch, Scripture, and even world history generally. Parts are best understood in relation to the whole of which they are parts. Any part of the Bible is a part of the entire plan of God to reveal and glorify Himself and to draw His people home to Himself. There is much that is clear in Scripture and obscure passages can be better understood in light of those that are clearer. Even the clear parts of Scripture can be understood more deeply by their relation to the whole.

Step 3: Apply: If the first two steps have been done well, it is a very small step to do the third. Once individual difficulties are cleared up by being dealt with on their own (step 1) and in relation to other things of which they are a part (step 2), one begins to see the whole of scriptural revelation and therefore the purpose for which God inspired men to write these things down. As St. Augustine says, the ultimate goal of all of Scripture is to build up the love of God and neighbor. So, once the purpose is seen, the application to one’s own life becomes much easier.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Nathan Schmiedicke, Ph.D.

Dr. Nathan Schmiedicke is the director of the CLAA Biblical Studies program.   Dr. Schmiedicke was born the fifth of eleven children and raised on a small family farm in Michigan. He attended Catholic school through eighth grade and was home-schooled through High school. After graduating with honors from Thomas Aquinas College (CA) he married his college sweetheart, and began graduate school at Marquette University (Milwaukee). He completed his PhD in Biblical Theology in 2007 and began teaching Theology, Scripture, and languages at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and classics at nearby Villanova University. Dr. Schmiedicke is a Senior Fellow with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.  Nathan and Wendy have five boys.