I was raised in a Catholic household. There was nothing extreme about
it. Both my parents had been to parochial schools. It seemed as if
they had had enough of the church by the time they were grown and had
a family to care for. By sending us to church, they were doing what
they knew to do. There was a time when supermarkets offered "an item a week"
promotions. Sometimes it was flatware, sometimes it was teacups and
dinnerware. I distinctly remember the store offering the Bible in
weekly sections. Though it was not an especially religious family
environment, my parents bought this Bible in sections. There must have
been another Bible around the house, but this Bible would be huge - at
least 12 inches by 9 inches and at least six or seven inches deep. I was ten or eleven years old at the time and, when this huge Bible
was completed, I made the declaration that I would read the whole
thing, cover to cover. I started at the beginning and read through
Genesis. I did the math and figured that people lived to be 700, 800,
or even over a thousand years old. Until God said, according to this
Bible, that people could live only one-hundred twenty years. Sensible,
I thought. But making the lives shorter meant more begets, and when
the begetting seemed to go on to naming all the generations that ever
lived, the ten year old that I was then stopped reading. I came back to it. Somehow, just a couple of years later, I was the
top student in the religious studies class (called catechism in the
Catholic Church). And again, at 20, I was touched by the Bible. This
time it was with the New Testament, and kept what I read in the back
of my mind like a thread back to something I knew about myself, but
did not discuss it with anyone. I wrote about some of these early experiences in the post about My Jesus Year. In that
article, I mentioned once asking someone about the Jewish holiday of
Passover and was told, "You're a Jew, you should know this. Jesus was
a Jew." It turns out there are parallels in Moses' story told in Exodus, the
second book in the Old Testament (which I would have read if Genesis
had not become so dull with all that begetting). Of course, it was a
Passover meal that was The Last Supper in the New Testament. And The
Last Supper is the time that marks the beginning of Easter, or Holy
Week, in the New Testament. I find that it would be instructive to
include Exodus on the website. So, over
the next few days, I will post the entire 40 chapters of Exodus. I
will try to add a short summary at the beginning of each chapter, but
I may have to return at a later time to do that. I will follow up with
a discussion in the podcast. More at Fromoutoftheblue.com
it. Both my parents had been to parochial schools. It seemed as if
they had had enough of the church by the time they were grown and had
a family to care for. By sending us to church, they were doing what
they knew to do. There was a time when supermarkets offered "an item a week"
promotions. Sometimes it was flatware, sometimes it was teacups and
dinnerware. I distinctly remember the store offering the Bible in
weekly sections. Though it was not an especially religious family
environment, my parents bought this Bible in sections. There must have
been another Bible around the house, but this Bible would be huge - at
least 12 inches by 9 inches and at least six or seven inches deep. I was ten or eleven years old at the time and, when this huge Bible
was completed, I made the declaration that I would read the whole
thing, cover to cover. I started at the beginning and read through
Genesis. I did the math and figured that people lived to be 700, 800,
or even over a thousand years old. Until God said, according to this
Bible, that people could live only one-hundred twenty years. Sensible,
I thought. But making the lives shorter meant more begets, and when
the begetting seemed to go on to naming all the generations that ever
lived, the ten year old that I was then stopped reading. I came back to it. Somehow, just a couple of years later, I was the
top student in the religious studies class (called catechism in the
Catholic Church). And again, at 20, I was touched by the Bible. This
time it was with the New Testament, and kept what I read in the back
of my mind like a thread back to something I knew about myself, but
did not discuss it with anyone. I wrote about some of these early experiences in the post about My Jesus Year. In that
article, I mentioned once asking someone about the Jewish holiday of
Passover and was told, "You're a Jew, you should know this. Jesus was
a Jew." It turns out there are parallels in Moses' story told in Exodus, the
second book in the Old Testament (which I would have read if Genesis
had not become so dull with all that begetting). Of course, it was a
Passover meal that was The Last Supper in the New Testament. And The
Last Supper is the time that marks the beginning of Easter, or Holy
Week, in the New Testament. I find that it would be instructive to
include Exodus on the website. So, over
the next few days, I will post the entire 40 chapters of Exodus. I
will try to add a short summary at the beginning of each chapter, but
I may have to return at a later time to do that. I will follow up with
a discussion in the podcast. More at Fromoutoftheblue.com
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