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Lesson Objectives
- To read Genesis 1-3 with understanding.
- To learn God’s “original intent” in creating man and woman.
- To understand the sin of Adam and Eve and understand God’s promise of a New Adam and a New Eve.
I. Review and Overview
We pick up this month where we left off in our last lesson: God had just finished creating the world.
He started out with nothing and six "days" later He had fashioned, through His Word ("Let there be…"), a virtual "Temple" in which He would dwell with all that He created. On the seventh day, He made a "covenant" with the world - binding Himself to His creation for all time.
Now, we turn back to concentrate on the crown jewel of God’s creation - the human race. In this lesson we’ll be learning about our ancestors, the founding father and mother of the human family.
We’ve all heard this story a thousand times. But this time we’re going to read it as the start of salvation history, the start of God’s relationship with the human family.
Other Lessons
- Lesson One: How a Catholic Starts to Read the Bible
- To learn how to read the Bible the way the Catholic Church has always read it.
- To understand the concepts of “salvation history” and “covenant” and their importance for reading the Bible.
- To learn the key points of the creation story in the Bible’s first book, Genesis.
- Lesson Three: East of Eden, Headed to Egypt
- To read Genesis 3-50 with understanding.
- To understand God’s covenants with Noah and with Abraham and to see how these covenants look forward to, and are fulfilled in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.
- To appreciate the key figures in the story of Abraham - Melchizedek, circumcision, the sacrifice of Isaac - as they are interpreted in the Church’s tradition.
- Lesson Four: On the Way to the Promised Land
- To read the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy with understanding.
- To understand God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai and to see how this covenant looks forward to and is fulfilled in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.
- To appreciate the key figures and events - Moses, the Passover, and the vocation of Israel as “a kingdom of priests” - as they are interpreted in the Church’s tradition.
- Lesson Five: To Kingdom Come
- To finish reading the Old Testament (from Joshua to Malachi) and to read with understanding.
- To understand the broad outlines of the history of Israel in light of God’s covenant with Abraham.
- To appreciate the crucial importance of God’s everlasting covenant with David.
- Lesson Six: Into the Kingdom of the Son
- To read the New Testament with understanding.
- To understand how the New Testament depicts Jesus as the fulfillment of the covenants of the Old Testament.
- To appreciate, especially, the importance of God’s everlasting covenant with David for understanding the mission of Jesus and the Church as it is presented in the New Testament.