What does Scripture mean by “fulfillment”? (Use the citation from Hosea as an example in your answer.) Second, identify anything you can see in these opening chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that addresses the elements of the Old Testament narrative that we discussed last class.

When the Scripture mentions “fulfillment,” it refers to the idea that God’s promises to His people have been or are being satisfied. These promises God gave through the prophets have started to be conceived, and Jesus is a big part of this in the New Testament. Yet, it also refers to to the prophecies by Hosea being fulfilled in the New Testament too. For instance, “When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols” (Hos 11:1-2). This citation from the Hosea is later alluded to in the Book of Matthew when he Matthew exclaims the same words, in reference to the return of the Holy Family of Egypt or even when Christ rises from his grave later on.

As it is explained in the “Scribes of the Kingdom,” the New Testament often makes references to the Old Testament not to be repetitive, but because in alluding to the Old Testament, the words of the prophets and of the Lord on it speak for themselves without further explanations.

In Luke’s opening chapter of his book, he talks about many accounts that allude to the Old Testament as well. For instance, when the angel Gabriel is sent to Nazareth to tell Virgin Mary that she has been chosen by God to conceive His son, Jesus Christ. Just as God has granted this gift and honor to Mary, He also tells Joseph he shall be with her, and he shall believe she is to be the mother of God’s son. This points to how both Mary and Joseph represent, like in the Old Testament, the elected. They have been chosen by God to carry on his duties on earth and the people, and to believe blindly in Him as he shall be their only God.

Later, in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the genealogy of the Messiah, Jesus, is presented. I believe this is a reference to the Old Testament, for it gives out all the names of the ancestors of the Messiah, and shows have all sorts of people have been part of the line of ancestry. Yet, regardless of this, Jesus is the one that has come to save them all.

Why is it, do you think, that they closed the Pentateuch (i.e. the first unit of the Bible that is comprised of the first five books) with the death of Moses? It’s kind of a let down, no? (3) In the chapters from Joshua and Judges that we read, we seem to enter a new golden age of conquest. But … things are not so simple. Yes Joshua is much like Moses. (Can you see how?) Nevertheless, a shadow hangs over the whole of what he does. How might the closing passage of Deuteronomy 34 guide our reading of all that takes place in the book of Joshua? What does the text really mean to say about the events of his generation?

The people of Israel do not have a real home, for they move from place to place with the aim of being able to someday get to the promised land… They undergo many tragic stories that could even be considered catastrophes, and it is not for anything else that the support and love of God that one day they are sent Moses. He is one of the most important prophets of all, if not the most important one. To him there has been no other prophet that really compares, and although he is an excellent leader, he is not able to take the people of Israel into the promised land.

After him came Joshua, who was very much like Moses, but very very different as well. Nevertheless, Joshua was the prophet that was able to bring all the people of Israel into the promised land and aided them on their terrible and stressful journey. Yet, the Deuteronomy 34 exclaims that even though Joshua was great, there was never a prophet like Moses that got to know God “face to face.”Moreover, there are several other biblical figures that are alluded to on the journey, and there are several hidden messages as well that must be very carefully interpreted.

For this reason, although it may seem as if the Old Testament is stopped in a sudden manner, it is very much just continued in the New Testament, for everything on it refers back to the old one.

Personally, I really like how there are so many connections between the New Testament and the old one, and am very excited to keep being able to make these connections in class.

(1) What is purity / impurity? (2) Why does God require the maintenance of purity? (3) What is the logic of the laws we encounter related to purity, specifically the food laws?

To me, purity and impurity can be quite relative concepts when it comes to their definitions. Nevertheless, purity is definitely related with morality and good behavior, while impurity is more commonly linked with the opposite. Purity, in God’s eyes, usually refers to a life that follows the Ten Commandments, an that despite obstacles on the way, remains being a life full of grace and obedience to the Lord. Impurity, on the other hand, refers more to the dissonance of what the Lord asks of us and how we behave in response or according to. Impurity is often related to “dirtiness,” given that dirt does not have a nice connotation or is not often referred to when giving out positive commentary.

God requires the maintenance of purity because he wants us to be good children of His; and, in order to do so and receive the blessing of being someday with Him in Heaven, we must make sure to behave in accordance to His commandments. Moreover, as children of the Lord, and made in His image and likeness, we are expected to behave in the same ways He would in our position. Conserving pure souls is important given that in a world full of obstacles, we must learn to face them and not let ourselves go with the flow.

Therefore, the laws created by God in regards to purity are there in order to be our guidance through our walk in life. Whenever we feel lost, or in any given moment, we can appeal to these laws and make the best out of the situation we find ourselves in. The food laws, moreover, also represent ethical standards, where we should only be able to eat certain foods, and refrain ourselves from those the Lord explains should not be consumed.

“Who is God…?” This is a question many people throughout history have pondered, and yet, there is still not an exact definition of a precise description. God, to many people, many be different; for some people, like me, my God is the God of the Roman Catholic Church, for others it may be Allah, or to some the word “God” may not even have to be the representation of a spiritual being but rather a thing. As Ratzinger mentions on his text of The Introduction to Christianity, God did not appear over night or suddenly become God, but rather, he has been there all along.

God is the creator of Heaven and Earth, of the forgiveness of sins, of the living and nonliving things we know about, and even the things we have no idea exist. It is important to take this into account when it come to thinking who God is, for these facts allow us to have a better understanding of the very strong connotation the word “God,” may have. In the book of the Exodus, God is the savior and the omnipotent being that, allows one cannot see, one can listen to perfectly. He is the one that saves all the Israelites from the misery the Pharaoh and the Egyptians are putting them through, and utilized Moses’ and Aaron’s help to do so.

Personally, to me, God has always been a supreme and all powerful being who strives to guide us through the best path. Despite the idea of free will, he helps us when we feel lost and he has mercy for all of us despite our decisions. It is thanks to him that we live day by day and thanks to this blessings that we may one day reach Heaven.

Why does Joseph plant the silver cup? What is the ultimate aim of such a move? How does this relate to his status as the beloved son? Appeal explicitly to the story as a whole (i.e. Gen 37-50) and to article from Anderson in your answer?

In the chapters 37-50 of the Book of the Genesis, we are taught the stories of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was the little brother, and he used to have dreams of moments when his own brothers and family would bow to him. His big brothers used to be very jealous of him and when they had the chance, one day as they were working in the fields, they decided to kill him. Nevertheless, this did not go as they planned, for they were convinced not to kill him but just to throw him into a whole where water was supposed to be kept. Moreover, they took the robe their father had given Joseph and filled it with animal blood so their father would think that Joseph had died rather than disappeared.

This was not really what happened, for Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Egyptians that were going by. It was a life full of downfalls for him, but in the end he got to be the ruler of Egypt. One day his brothers were starving, there was a famine that would last for a very long time, and they decided to go to Egypt and ask the ruler for food. It was then that Joseph was able to recognize them, but they did not recognize their younger brother. Joseph decided to plant the silver cup in Benjamin’s bag just to see what would happen when their brothers and Benjamin were accused. As the guards found out that Benjamin was “stealing” the silver cup, the older brothers stood up for him and decided they would not leave him alone in this horrible situation. Joseph cried a lot as he learned that his brothers had changed from how they used to be, and gave them food and reconciled.

Who wins, really? And who is his opponent?

In the Genesis we can see how Jacob was very different from Esau since the moment of their birth, and I found it really interesting how from the moment Esau was born first, Jacob came out of the womb grabbing one of his brother’s ankles. This has a lot of symbolism in my opinion for what happened next. Jacob lived a life full of things that made him worried or that perhaps he would regret later on, for he did trick noth his brother and his dad at some point. This really shows who he was and the mistakes he had made. There is a point in Jacob’s life where he has a battle with a “man” ( doesn’t really know who it really is), that is first described as a man, and later as a divine being… Yet, this happens when Jacob has faced a lot of the worries he lived through, one of them being the day Esau would come back to him, since Jacob tricked his brother is a very wicked way. This battle lasted all night and it was extremely tiring for both the opponent and Jacob to have to undergo such event. Nevertheless, I believe that between Jacob and his adversary, Jacob was the one who won. This is because Jacob told him that he would not release him until he have Jacob his blessing. Yet, it was not until the battle really stopped that this “man” gave him his blessing, and Jacob was in a way forgiven.

Personally, I think this “man” was either God or some spirit of Esau, who came to battle Jacob so he could understand all that he had done and how resented Esau was with his brother for having tricked him as he did. If it was God, I think he could have done this to open Jacob’s eyes and help him seek God; in the other hand, if it was Esau, I think this could have happened to teach Jacob a lesson.

It is hard to define such a dense concept as religion in just a few words. People around the world and across time have tried to come up with a definition of religion that is complete enough to include all the information needed, yet have failed to do so. Nevertheless, there are five features of religion that have been named to help put its main features together. The first one is that religion focuses on our ultimate concerns, such as giving an alternative to death, or comfort when in negative situation. The second one is that religion builds community; an example of this could be the communities built between people that volunteer at the same local church, or the receptions people attend to after a First Communion, for instance. The third feature is that religion appeals to myths and symbols, which would be for instance, the commotion of someone disrespecting a religious symbols. Further, the fourth one relates to the idea that religion is enforced through rites and ceremony, like going to church on Sundays. Finally, the last one is that religious demands certain behaviors from its adherens, which is the reason why so many people go to mass on Ash Wednesday or Christmas.

As understood by the features listed above, given its complexity religion cannot be defined in one or two words, but the main ideas of the concept are the same all throughout. Moreover, this studying of religion is called theology, “which attempts to understand the goodness as well as it can be understood and to arrive at a notion of justice that runs from it.” Yet, theology is not considered an academic discipline by many non-secular schools, so it is not taught in them most of the time. Without knowing it, this schools are keeping their students from developing a complete and more intellectual mindset.

Why is faith unavoidable? Why is it beneficial?

The idea of avoiding faith is very hard, for faith is found all around us every day. I find it very interesting how in Wilken’s reading, it is mentioned how Saint Augustine thought “no one believes anything unless one first thought it believable” (64).  This quote portrays the idea that to believe in something, someone (either you or someone else), has had to have an experience with what is believed. One can have faith on many different things: that a soccer player will score a goal at the tournament, that after much studying one will get a good grade on the test, or that if one knows a places directions one will not get lost. A more common example of faith is having a religion. “Faith is the portal that leads to the knowledge of God” and given that religions are based on trusting the word of the Lord, even though one has never seen Him, without faith Christianity and social structure would be impossible. Furthermore, people constantly allude to their Christian principles or background with deep trust,  saying things such as “God has a plan” or “I’ll leave it in God’s hands.” Despite not knowing Him personally, people who trust Him believe with great intensity in His words. Because of situations as such, it is very hard for us to avoid faith, since it is present unconsciously everywhere.; nevertheless, it is good that faith is unavoidable, since it is completely beneficial. Having something to look up to when one has a problem, or even just having the security of knowing that God has a plan for each of us is very comforting. If you think about it, “nothing would remain stable is human society if we were determined to believe only what can be held with absolute certainty”(171). The fact that many concepts in religion are intangible does not mean that religion is not to be trusted, and personally, I believe that it is the intangibility of religion that makes people so blindly in it. 

Abraham was a very loyal man of the Lord, he would sacrifice the few goods he had whenever he had to do so in order to please his God. There was a point when he found himself to have nothing, no lands, no wealth, no home, no children, nothing that could be on materialistic benefit to him, and yet, he never resented this. Nevertheless, things over time changed, and as the Lord realized how true to him Abraham really was, he gifted him with many riches. Obedience is one of the words that I would say describes this man the most, for what he was asked by Divine power to do, he did it. Throughout Abraham’s life, he and his wife Sarai felt troubled by the fact that despite Sarai’s beauty, she was not able to have children; to a man at this time, this meant that he would not be able to have an heir. They went through several problems regarding this, and Abraham even had a child with Sarai’s slave as part of Sarai’s idea… Yet, God granted the conceivability of a kid to Sarai, and after everything they went through to have a child, God asked Abraham one day to sacrifice him. Abraham obeyed to this request because he obeyed God always, but it must have been really hard for him to do so with this command. In 22:5 and 22:8 I do not think Abraham is lying, but rather I believe that he really did trust his Lord enough as to know that he would intervene in some way before the tragic offering took place. God’s intention with all this was to make sure that Abraham was a real follower of his teachings, and that he would do as God said so given his strong faith. Moreover, He might have done so in order to test how grateful Abraham was with Him after all that he had helped him with. To conclude, I do think that this was an extremely difficult act for Abraham to obey, and in his position I really do not think I would ever have been able to even start the process of “sacrificing my son.” Nonetheless, I do believe the moral of this story in the Genesis is very strong and admirable, and I do think it deserves praise from readers given the extremely hard situation Abraham was facing. Also, I believe God sometimes puts hard situations in our lives to see how we respond to them and what we do about them. The Lord to me is praiseworthy always, and I would love to understand more of the reasons for some of the things he did during all the process of creation.

Humans have their own ways of choosing between good and evil, and their own arguments for doing so. Yet, there was a time when the knowledge between good and evil had not been acquired by the humankind, and they lived happily without any real problems. It was not until Eve disobeyed the Lord in Genesis 3, that this knowledge, which some might call a curse, came upon humans. In Kass’s accounts about Noah, we learn that thanks to him and the ark he built God was able to give another chance to the humankind. There was one point in time, which the Genesis explains, where God noticed that humans were not purely good anymore. He noticed there were exploting tensions between family member, like Cain and Abel, which would lead to tragic endings, such as one of this brothers killing the other. Moreover, as natural death entered the world when Adam died, humans went crazy and started behaving in ways that were not common at all for the time; they felt jealousy and envy, they valued human life less and valued beauty more. In other words, an unethical and superficial world started to come about, which contradicted all the ideas the Lord had had when creating it. It is in the “wickedness” of men that God began to repent his creation of the humankind, since the moment men and women had the opportunity to choose between the good and the bad (Genesis 3 for instance), their hearts started to change as well. Noah, whose name means comfort and lament, was the opposite of all this wicked people. He really had no desire for immortality or glory, rather, he just wanted to obey the Lord in his commands to him. It was he who had the opportunity to save life on Earth by taking his family, and a female and male of every animal in the world on his ark in order to survive the massive floods God sent to the world to get rid of everything. Noah did not ask anything to God in regards to His peculiar commands, but just obeyed, something most would not have done at the time in his position. Kass’s narrative about Noah does bring into perspective the problem of free will in humans and furthers the concerns of the first sin in Genesis 3. For reasons such as the wickedness, jealousness, and greediness of the humankind that started with the first sin, God got to a point where he repented the creation of life so much that he wanted to get rid of it. Thanks to Noah, humans were saved, yet even in this way, God shortened the lifespan of humans because the shorter a life could be, the smaller the damage it could make.

Why does the account emphasize knowledge?According to Legaspi, what sort of knowledge is communicated by eating of “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad”? And should it be eating? Why not touching or looking at some special object? Why a tree from which you eat? Yes, it is an act of disobedience, but how else can we describe the failure of Eve and Adam? Does this act make Adam and Eve more god-like? Less? Both? Why might it be merciful that God banishes them from the Garden?

The passage assigned for our lecture demonstrates what happened at the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve when they were put to test. The tree of knowledge was the only thing that God had warned Adam and Eve about, and yet, was the biggest temptation that they encountered in the Garden of Eden in the place that God gave them as their home. Adam and Eve were not only tempted by the tree, rather by the snake that appeared by the tree. Overall this reading talked about about treason and about how the entire part of Genesis (2-3) referred indirectly to the idea of knowledge. The tree of Knowledge the one that had the fruit of enlightenment, which made Adam and Eve betray the unconditional God that they had. The tree basically was a way to prove how obedient and loyal these two people really were, and how the tree of Knowledge of good and evil gave them the capacity to make independent judgements that go together with human beings’ best interests and opinions. Moreover, after of giving a bite from the apple that was on the tree, sins appeared in the world and innocence started to face. An example of this was when, right after giving the apple a bite, Eve started to realize that both her and Adam were going around the world without anything to cover their private parts with. Further, and given to this, she started to cover herself with plants and this is when the world and intentions really shifted. Michael Legaspi gives an explanation of all of this in his writings, and further emphasizes how knowledge of the world and some type of free will came about.

Genesis 1:1 to 2:4 allows us to understand the process of creation. In this account, we are conveyed how God created the Earth, the Seas, all the living things we now know about, and even the ones we have never discovered. It is very nice how the concept of light brought such a change to the world. When He said, “let there be light,” darkness was replaced by the brightness we have today, and after the this, the world we know today started to come about. More than this, I find it very interesting how everything was created by days, and the process by which life came about. Is there a reason that sea creatures came before Earth creatures? Why were they not created together at the same time? Furthermore, the creation of human beings is another thing I find truly fascinating. Imagine that each and every one of the people that have roamed the Earth are different, and despite being different, they are all and have all been perfectly created. Many of them have had things that make them perfectly imperfect, and this exactly is what makes them part of the humankind. Also, it is very interesting how God proclaimed the human race as the race that should multiply and have dominion over all other life on Earth. Finally, I find it amazing how he was able to make all this happen in just seven days. Yet, throughout my life I have come to understand that time is a relative concept, and that while for us a day may consist of 24 hours, for God a day could go from being one second long, to even being 100,000 years long. Something I have pondered upon is the idea of the seventh day when God decided to rest. Given the thought that God does not need to rest, I believe the seventh day could have been the time where God decided to trust the humankind (perhaps Adam and Eve), without a doubt that he would be disrespected. After the seventh day, it might have been the time when hell was created. This would explain why there was no hell before this day, and how “God resting” really meant that he was trusting there would just be good in the world.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.