There's a new book out that I want really badly: A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. I guess I'm going to wait until the paperback version.
Anyway, the OT is a diverse collection of books, written in various times, in various genres, to various audiences. All of these factors, plus the revelation of Jesus Christ, will play a factor in our interpretation. You are currently a player in our shared salvation history, that began in Genesis and continues today. Do not be afraid.
I think you'd benefit greatly by getting Pitre and Bergsma's A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. Pitre and Bergsma are great Catholic scholars, and their work has been received very positively. I suggest picking it up given your concerns!
I think you'd benefit greatly by getting Pitre and Bergsma's A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. Pitre and Bergsma are great, orthodox Catholic scholars, and their work has been received very positively. I suggest picking it up given your concerns!
I highly recommend the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. It only exists in the New Testament, but various individual volumes can be bought for Old Testament books.
I also highly recommend <em>A Catholic Introduction to the Old Testament</em>. It’s awesome.
Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament covers a lot of interesting details for the Old Testament, going through each book one by one. I think the authors are working on a book for the New Testament as well, but it's not released yet.
Try the Navarre Bible books. It's kind of expensive, but you can get them used on Amazon and Ebay for various books. The commentary changes depending on newer or older editions. There's also A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma. I hear they're going to release a New Testament edition in the future.
I know you asked for speakers. But this book may also be of service. Brant Pitre is a very well respected Biblical scholar whose academic speciality is entirely on studying the Bible. This book is intended to be read side-by-side with the Bible. Pitre goes page by page examining the historical and cultural context of each of the books of the Bible, and interpret the theological implications. It is thorough, well-researched, and well-written. Even if you're not Catholic, it is an excellent resource.
I am anxiously waiting for a book by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma called A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament . It won’t be published until May but they are both fantastic on the OT.
If you want a general reference work, you can't do better than the CCC (as someone else already mentioned).
But there's plenty of other stuff depending on your particular interests. A lot of the things that "need explaining" are in the Old Testament.
I've seen some pre-pub manuscripts of this text and honestly, for a Catholic, there is no better text for understanding the OT. It's not out quite yet, but I can't highly enough recommend that you get it when it comes out.
Buy. Read. Now. It takes on both academic biblical criticism and provides the historical rationale for the difficult parts of the Old Testament.
Two suggestions
Old Testament
A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament https://www.amazon.com/dp/1586177222/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_B9XCCNFAR93RJ9WAYFPX
New Testament
An Introduction to the New Testament (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300140169/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_4D1C29GRB0HVK32R24VE
Or there’s the abridged version of the same work by Raymond Brown.
An Introduction to the New Testament: The Abridged Edition (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300173121/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_9TJPQSHJM75200ES45WZ
But the best priest to ask would be u/CruxAveSpesUnica
He’s got a PhD in Scripture studies.
My favorites Scripture Scholars are:
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They all have Bible Studies in specific topics (Eucharist, Priesthood, Covenants, specific Books) or more general. For Old Testament, I'd check out Brant Pitre and John Bergsma's somewhat recently released A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. They have a New Testament one coming, but not sure on the date. But you do have Scott Hahn's Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament to cover your bases there! You can also look into Navarre Study Bibles, it's best to get them used on sites like Ebay or Amazon as they're pricey but worth it in commentary. Brant Pitre and John Bergsma has a lot of their work available at Catholic Productions. Scott Hahn has the St. Paul Center, which even has some online study course available free like The Lamb's Supper: The Bible and the Mass.
For an excellent detailed introduction to the various books of the Old Testament, I recommend
For each OT book it provides answers to the following questions, based upon the latest Catholic Biblical scholarship:
When was it written? Why was it written?
What literary genre(s) are used in it?
What are the common historical questions and/or debates concerning its content?
What are we to make of their laws, stories, histories, and prophecies?
For answering Bible "difficulties", some of which concern reconciling passages with historical evidence that appears to be in contradiction, I recommend
Textbooks:
A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament https://www.amazon.com/dp/1586177222/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A87HR9A8VJMT4VXX2KND
An Introduction to the New Testament (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300140169/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_9DBYQ11KRA86K87PBN50
The best Bible translation out there is the New Revised Standard Bible.
The best web resource is Bible Hub. You can get into excellent Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, concordances, and helpful information
My advice it that as you begin to study scripture do not approach it as a theology textbook. It isn’t. It also isn’t an instruction manual that tells you how to get to heaven. That’s not what the Bible is.
Rather study the narrative, the big stories it tells. The. Bible is a library of (primarily) stories that engage and advance grand stories about who God is, what God is doing, how God is asking humans to be his agents and coworkers, how Jesus fulfilled Gods promises, and what all of this is leading to in new creation.
I dont mean any disrespect, just want to know your thought process. Are you saying you agree and support the conclusions of the NABRE or that the NABRE should be read to challenge Catholics to give a defense of the faith against critics. If it is the latter, i would not have an issue with that as long as that intention is made clear by the USCCB and RCIA programs. However if it is the former, I cannot conceive of any defense of that position.
I should clarify my original statement. There is such thing as historical criticism that still maintains a rigorous systematic approach, but also defends orthodox Catholicism. An example would be Brant Pitre's introduction to the old testament by Ignatius press.
[Which i recommend anyone with a NABRE buy to get an orthodox historical criticism and use as an alternative resource] (https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Introduction-Bible-Old-Testament/dp/1586177222/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2WJ3Z1SCH12EE&dchild=1&keywords=a+catholic+introduction+to+the+bible+the+old+testament-brant+pitre&qid=1633368550&sprefix=brant+pitre+introduction+%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-3#customerReviews)
When the majority of scholars come to the conclusion that the the Torah was written almost 500 years after Moses, making Deuteronomy 31:24 essentially a lie. And when they claim all the prophetic books made up prophesies after the fact, making the authors a bunch of liars. And then having the new testament writers get deceived by these lies, and then making the new testament writers lie about the life of Jesus. How do you not make the conclusion of Atheism?
I wouldn't go there. Study the bible for real from faithful scholars, not on Reddit. Academic biblical studies currently exists to destroy orthodoxy and has for quite some time.
Like many academic arguments, this is purely conjecture created more or less within the last century. There are no firsthand primary sources where an ancient Israelite unequivocally confirms that polytheism is a tenet of the ancient Hebrew religion. The very first lines of Genesis speak of a singular creator deity. The ensuing narratives implicitly reject the divinity of the elements, introducing the radical idea that they are merely creations. The Exodus plagues are a sequential refutation of the existence of pagan deities, in ascending order and culminating in the imperial cult. An alternate god is never granted existence or agency in the Old Testament, only their non-existence is demonstrated in explicit contrast to the Lord, such as Elijah in the Book of Kings. The refrain throughout the Old Testament is that the idols have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear - they are lifeless, which is why we refer to the Lord as the living God. Yes, there is Psalm 82, but the interpretation that it is referring to mortal rulers is plausible from the face of the text and is cohesive with the rest of the OT narrative.
I recommend this article on Mosaic:
https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/history-ideas/2017/07/the-corruption-of-biblical-studies/
Basically, ideas in academia are shunned out the gate as "conservative" if they are orthodox, but the branding "liberal" is never used because it is expected.
I can't recommend enough Pitre & Bergsma's Catholic Introduction to the Old Testament. Not only does it respond to a lot of the historical critical arguments but it also addresses reservations that certain parts of the Old Testament are overly harsh or hard to reconcile with the New: