Scripture
Preach
Questions
Read Mark 1:1-8. What do these words or terms mean to you: beginning, gospel, Jesus, Christ, prophet, messenger, before your face, wilderness, Lord, make straight his paths, baptism, repentance, sin, Judean region, Jerusalem, Jordan River, confessing, camel’s hair, locusts and wild honey, untie the strap of his sandals, Holy Spirit? Most of these words will mean little or nothing to people outside the Christian community.
What is the Deuteronomistic history? If you are not sure see Scroll order of the Tanakh/Hebrew bible. Did it offer much hopes to the Jews in exile or even when the returned to the land under Roman occupation?
How is YHWH presented as a warrior in the OT? How does this fit with Isaiah 42:1–4? How is Jesus=YHWH still a warrior?
What are the “other scrolls” of the Hebrew bible? If you are not sure see Scroll order of the Tanakh/Hebrew bible. What hope does it offer to Jews in exile? Especially 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 which are at the very end of the Hebrew bible.
Read Isaiah 45:1. How can Cyprus be the Anointed/Messiah/Christ of YHWH? How does this humble us? How does this give us hope as to what God may be doing in our world today?
After “other scrolls” the period of waiting and partial return to the land saw one foreign occupation after another, the Maccabean revolt [1 and 2 Maccabees] and desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes [156 BC]. There was a recommitment to YHWH, the covenant God, by many Jews in this period. The synagogues arose to teach Torah and all God’s covenant word within the local community. The oral Talmuds, the authoritative deliberations of the rabbis, were memorized by each generation of rabbis and taught in the synagogues. The Hebrew bible was translated into Greek [LXX] and there was the oral Targum, the Aramaic translation. Why was this necessary?
How well equipped do you feel to understand your life in terms of God’s word?Are there disciplines you need to nurture?