The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

Welcome to the official start of the Bible in a Year Podcast! We'll begin reading the Bible in the episode "Day 1: In the Beginning", but before we dig into scripture, Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike Schmitz to lay out the context for the Early World period (Genesis 1-11). They discuss the type of scripture we'll encounter (Hebrew poetry) and how that affects our understanding of the Word. This episode is not part of the 365 day reading plan, but is important to help understand the readings from this period. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Welcome to the official start of the Bible in the Air podcast. Today, this is the day that we begin our journey where we read through the entire Bible in 365 days. But before we begin with day one, we have to first introduce the very first

time period of the Great Adventure Bible timeline. So as you probably already know, what we'll be following over the course of this entire year, 365 days, is the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. And the person who created this is the renowned Catholic Bible teacher, Mr. Jeff Cavins, to give you an introduction to the early world. This is gonna be so important. Like this episode is gonna be very important as we launch into the early world,

which is the very first time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. So as you know, the reading plan that we're using, it's inspired by this Great Adventure Bible timeline, which divides the Bible into 12 time periods. And if you have the Great Adventure Bible, those time periods are identified by different colors and that would serve kind of like as chapters in salvation history. So every time we arrive at a new time period in the Bible, we're going to be able to have Jeff on this podcast to give you an introduction to that period. So my hope is that these episodes, these like beginning,

launching a new time period episodes will give you a deeper understanding of the biblical context as we read through the Bible, because that's one of the goals we want to have. We want to be able to understand the context as well as the stories. We're not just getting a collection of stories. We're also getting like the big story. And Jeff is here to do that. Before we begin, however, the Bible translation that I'm using, quick reminder, it is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension because it has all those, the color coding, it has all the timeline in it. You can follow along super easily. If you want to follow along, not only in your own Bible, but also know what's coming, we have a downloadable PDF that's a Bible in a Year reading plan. You can get it

for free just by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. So if you want to get your Bible in a Year reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. So if you want to get your Bible in a year reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. You also can sign up for our email list and get the updates and text messages, whatever, and probably not text messages, but either the email list by texting the word Catholic Bible. I know that's two words, but we're combining them together. Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Again, just in your text function of your phone, just the number is 33777. And in the, in the message part of it, just type all together, not two words, but one word Catholic Bible. Lastly, please subscribe in your podcast app. So, so not only will you get an update every single time we drop an episode, which is going to be every single day for the next 365 days,

but also that way it kind of gives some more exposure and people can learn about this podcast. So all of that being said, let's get started. As I've mentioned before, I have learned probably more about the Bible from one individual named Jeff Cavins than maybe any other human being on this planet. I'm so grateful for him not only to have created the Great Adventure Bible timeline, but all of his other Bible studies, as well as I'm so grateful for his friendship because it would be an understatement if I called him a mentor. It would be an understatement if I called him someone that I

just find myself constantly referring to what he has taught me, what I've learned from him. We're constantly referring to what I've heard him say or what I've read him, read him right. But we're joined today by Jeff Cavins. He's going to get us, give us kind of basically not only an overview of the first time period, which is the early world, but also give us a deeper dive into like, what can we expect over the next few days as we're reading through the early world? So with all that being said, Jeff, welcome. Thank you. It's good to be with you, Father. And you kind of feel like, remember when you were growing up and you knew that you were going to go on vacation starting in September and it's the night before and do you have everything together? Is everyone packed? Are we ready to go on this? And we are. We're launching, and congratulations to you.

It's going to be an exciting year and an opportunity for people to get the story. As you said earlier, there's a lot of stories in the Bible, but what about the story and putting it all together? And I think over this next year, not only are you going to be able to read through it, but you're going to be able to give people some guidance and some inspiration. And the year 2020 was a big year as far as memory, but 2021 is going to be a real special year as far as new discoveries. So excited about it. And we're going to try to make it as simple as possible for people to read through it. And if you've never read the Bible before, don't worry. There was a time where I had never read the Bible before. I can't believe that.

But I have to believe it because I know how time works. But Jeff, so one of the things that before, as we launch in, one of the pieces that's going to happen in every one of the podcasts is we will proclaim scripture. And I really think it's not just being recited. I think we really want to have it so that you get the sense that the people who are listening get the sense that it's being proclaimed. But also there's going to be a little guidance. At the end of every podcast, there's kind of some commentary that I'll offer or some

kind of like, here's what I have gotten out of some reflections on this or trying to put things in context. what I have gotten out of some reflections on this or trying to put things in context. But before we do that, can you offer us some context for when it comes to not just the idea, but also the implementation of these 12 time periods? Whether that's a brief description of how you came up with that, or if it's just kind of like how you found that to be incredibly useful. Sure. Yeah. There was a time where I didn't know really how to read the Bible, and I started in Genesis and thought, well, I'm going to go to Revelation, and at the end, I'm just going to say, man, that was an amazing story. You know, what's next? But I lost my interest in it, trying to read it through in chronological order,

at least. And so what we have put together in the Great Adventure Bible and the studies is we have made the difficult simple. And that's really the key to understanding the Bible is take this incredibly complex book, and it's written over a few thousand years, and make it simple so that people can understand it. And so what we did is we divided the Bible up, as you said, into 12 periods. And then out of the 73 books, not all books are equal. They're all inspired, but they don't all do the same thing. There are certain books that are narrative.

There are certain books that are prophetic, certain books that are poetry, apocalyptic, all kinds of different genres. So what we are doing is picking out the 14 narrative books as you will be reading through those 14 books in the next year. But you are going to be expertly putting the other 59 books in the historical context. And so when you're reading one of the 14 narrative books, you're also going to be throwing in, for example, the Psalms or the prophets when they speak. And this will be an incredible tool for people to get a taste of these books that up till now are sort of a mystery, you'll give them a place to live and to be understood. So that's what we're going to be doing. And when we look at the early world,

you're going to be reading for five different days and going through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. And that is the beginning of our entire journal, is the first five books of Genesis. And we give it a color, turquoise, because it reminds us of the earth viewed from space. If you were to go way up there in space, look down, you see this beautiful turquoise ball, and that reminds you of creation. And so when you look at Genesis 1-11, there is going to be an awful lot at the very, very beginning. And what you're going to encounter in these first five days is you're going to encounter themes and patterns which are going to be revisited as you read throughout the year. It might be in June or it might be in

September that you're going to think, wow, I've been here before. This is really, really interesting. And so another thing to remember about reading the first 11 chapters of Genesis is that it's a history of the early world, but it's not written as a type of history that we are used to. We're used to, okay, just tell me the facts and how it happened. But in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and how it happened. But in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, God is going to explain to you the beginning and creation of the world, creation of Adam and Eve, how we ended up falling, the introduction, of course, of Lucifer, Satan, how we fell, what are the consequences, and wow, where do we go from here? That's what we're going to

be covering here. But it is written in Hebrew poetry form. And so when you read about the serpent and you read about the garden, all true, but it's written in a very creative way. Now, does that make it less historical? No, it doesn't at all. It's just the way that God had it written, and it's actually very beautiful. Now, when you get up to the patriarchs, which you're going to be up into that period pretty quick, that's typically more of a linear type of history, which we're going to get into. And is that the distinction between the early world and the patriarchs, is that chapters 1 through 11 or that Hebrew poetry, and then it switches in chapter 12 through 50, where it's like, no, now we're talking a different

kind of writing, different telling the expansion of the story, but maybe I don't want to say more rooted in some characters or figures that we maybe know are rooted more in. This is maybe prehistory one through 11 11, and then history, history, 12 through 50. Is that kind of accurate way of saying it? Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. It's early world. It's the beginning of the entire story, but it's told in a very dramatic way. And you think about it, we're dealing with chapters 1 and 2, we're dealing with creation. And imagine that.

All of creation, the entire world, Adam, Eve, everything, is in just a few hundred words. And so we have to ask ourselves, well, what is God trying to get across in the early world? And basically, it is that he has created a place for his greatest creation, which is mankind, to dwell. And he's going to have a relationship with Adam and Eve in the garden. And it doesn't go so well. It kind of goes south real quick. It doesn't go so well. That's a great way to describe it.

It kind of doesn't turn out how you want it to. Well, it's interesting. In the very first chapter, the key here is the first and second verses. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. The key there is, at the beginning, is that as you look at creation, there is no form and it's void. And the creation really deals with the formlessness, and then it fills the void. So for example, when you're dealing with formlessness, you have the first three days of creation that are dealing with the formlessness. For example, on the first day, God is going to

create time. On the second day, he's going to create space. On the third day, he's going to create land. So you've got time, space, and land. And then on days four, five, and six, God is going to fill the space. And so you have the sun, the moon, and the stars on day four. You have on day five, the birds, the fish. And then on day six, you got the beasts of the field. Yeah. But you got one more thing on day six too. Something else happens. No, that's an interesting, it's so powerful. I think, I remember the first time I heard you describe that, that here is the kind of a, I don't want, recapitulation is the wrong word, but that

you said form and void being filled. So you have, again, time, space, and land. And in time, what marks the time? Well, the moon and the stars. Like, okay. And then here is space. And what fills the space is the birds of the sky and the fish. And then what fills the land is the animals on here. And I didn't realize like, oh my gosh, this is, it's structured in a way that makes sense. Cause I, you know, as a younger person or person, I, like you're saying, you stumble into the word of God, like, okay, I guess, you know, of course he hit day four and you're like, wait a second, God already made the day and the night, but now on day four, he's making sun and moon. What? Oh? Gotcha. Like, oh, Hebrew poetry.

That's right. We'll go back to that. Right. And recognition that, like, wow, it's just, it's fascinating when someone's able to give some structure or lens even. Like, here is what to look for. Right. Like, oh my gosh, I would never have known that. That's why I think it's so important to have a guide like the Great Adventure Bible study.

The Great Adventure Bible timeline is so, so powerful. Well, if you get into creation, you have the creation of the world, then you have the creation of Adam and Eve, which they are different than any other creation. They are created in the image and likeness of God, which means that they have a will and they can reason, the capacity to love and sacrifice in a great way. And they are created and they're put into the Garden of Eden. And there was just a couple of caveats here, where God said to them, you can freely eat of any tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you will die. And so at the very beginning, like any great book, at the beginning,

we have what's at stake here. You're free to eat of any of them except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of it, you're going to die. Then comes chapter three, where we have a new character, the enemy comes in, Satan, who's fallen. And he comes in and he says, did God say? Immediately starts questioning God. And Adam doesn't say anything. And Eve steps in and she says, he says, did God say you shall not eat of any tree? And the woman said, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden. Well, Satan comes right back and says, you will not die. That's a lie. You're not going to die. And so God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So this is really

interesting, is that we're created, Adam and Eve are created in the image and likeness of God, yet the enemy kind of sneaks in and says, well, you see, he doesn't want you eating from that tree, because if you do, you're going to be like him, and he doesn't want that. And so it's an outright... So backwards. Exactly. It's an outright lie. And the key here then is that when Eve looks at the tree, which you're going to be reading and talking about, when she looks at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you would think if it's so bad, you're going to see things like bank robbery, adultery, tax evasion,

whatever it might be. The obviously bad, yeah. Yeah, the really obvious things like duh, which in Hebrew is duh. But she doesn't. What does she say? She looks at it and says, well, this stuff is good for the food. It's a delight to the eyes, and it makes one wise. What's not to like about that?

Right. So she ends up eating it and then gives it to Adam, and we have the fall, which is at the center here of this early world. We have the fall. And we can't simplify it, Father, so much so that we just say, well, why did Adam and Eve fall? Well, God doesn't get into fruit. I mean, it's not that. The vegetable trees, that's the ones I really wanted.

Right. I mean, it's not that. He's like, I really want the vegetable trees. That's the ones I really wanted. Right. And so you have to look at the heart of sin is that pride came in and they could take it from here, you know, themselves, and they lost their trust. They lost their trust. That grasping.

Yep. And they were grasping for the creation rather than the creator. Yeah. And this is something that is everyone is reading along with you, is going to encounter that, man, I'm in that same situation. And the moment you make the creation, no matter what it is, you make the creation greater than the creator, you have idolatry. And this is the introduction of mortal sin into our relatives, which affected us in such a way. But the good news is that God has a plan. And he has a plan. It's not the end. It's the start.

A plan of sheer goodness, the catechism says in the very first paragraph. And you can see this in chapter 3 and verse 15. And that is that I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And so we have this amazing plan that's going to be lived out over the next year with your podcast, and at the end, that's the only time you can say the end. It's on the very last one. But as we move on into the early world, you'll see the results of this fall of Adam and Eve. The results kind of happen. It unravels pretty quickly. The story of here is the grasping

and that pride and that sense of like, I know better than God. It seems to be like this repeating thing that happens, especially when it comes to that decision. Okay, will you, will I let God be God or will I reach out for my own sake? As you mentioned, it goes from fruit. I took a piece of fruit to sibling murder, you know, fratricide. Very quickly. That escalated quickly in so many words. But like, how important is it, do you think, that, because I think it can't be overstated,

the importance of getting these first pieces of the story nailed down, that God is good, he made this world good, he made human beings good. And then we took all that goodness and we good. And then we took all that goodness and we distorted it. We broke it by, and not, we didn't need to, but we chose to. And even like you're mentioning the Cain and Abel story comes next, where God says to Cain, like, you don't, you don't have to give in to this, this sin that, you know, devil's a demon looking at your door, but you can resist him. Like there's a, there's, there's still hope even in the midst of this brokenness. Yeah, there is. And that's the good news here. You're going to see with the fall of Adam and Eve that their relationship with God changed. They were afraid. They hid. And a lot of people can identify with this. I'm afraid. I'm hiding from God.

It changed their relationship with each other. They didn't trust each other. And it changed their relationship with creation. They no longer looked at themselves as really stewards, but they abused even. And so it changed every relationship. But God has a plan. He has a plan of sheer goodness. And as you see the rest of the early world played out, you run into the beginnings of this great flood. It's almost like God saying, you know, Ixnay on the first creation,

you know, and he wants to start over, but he takes the family of Noah, his wife, and their three sons and their wives, and they build an ark. And while this seems like a children's story in some ways, it's not. Because we hear it as kids. It's not a kid's story. How, yeah, how, in what way, it's kind of a last thing just for, so that people who are listening to the podcast can jump into episode one and hear the story proclaimed to them.

What is that not children's part of the story of like the story of Noah and the flood? Like, you know, again, as kids, you hear it. And so you're like, oh yeah, this is a story for kids, but it's so much not, it's not at all. No, it's really a story of reality and the result of sin in our lives, not only in our hiding from God, but in the way that we treat each other. And this was pretty radical. But the remedy for the brokenness of mankind is extremely radical. It is very radical. And we're going to see that later on in the year where God becomes one of us, and

he takes the place of us and pays the price, as your listeners will learn later about covenants and what those are about. But this is really giving us, Father, chapters 1 through 11 really gives us a snapshot of the plan, the problem with the plan, the remedy for the plan. the plan, the problem with the plan, the remedy for the plan. And from here on out, we're going to be revisiting some of these themes. And I'll give you a little hint, a little bit of a hint, and that is that at the end of the story, towards the end of the story, we're going to find the solution to this, which happened in the garden. We're going to find the solution through someone who's in a garden. Yeah, absolutely. Towards the end. And we have bookends to the entire story. And that's what's going to make this so exciting. And so I just really encourage people to listen and let the Word of God soak

deeply into your heart, because the Word can change you. The Word of God can change you. And with the advice that you're going to give people, this is going to be an experience like none other, a year like none other, and we know we need it. We need a great year where we listen to God and walk with Him like never before. So put your seatbelt on and really prepare for a transformation in your life. Amen. Thank you so much for that. Because especially these first 11 chapters, we're gonna get through them in five days.

These first five days of the year are gonna take us through this entire, just kind of the shortest time period. But the early world, which will be in so many ways, it's the first layer of a lens that's being shaped when it comes to how to look at the world. And so again, this layer of here's God's goodness, here's our grasping,

and here's God not letting go of us, but continuing to pursue us even in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our turning away from him. So thank you, Jeff, once again for joining us to introduce this early world to us. In a couple of days, after we get through the early world, Jeff's going to join us again

for the patriarchs so we can walk through that and kind of get a good context of a little bit longer journey next month or so after the early world ends. We're going to start the patriarchs and get that next context for that next time period. Once again, if you're interested in downloading the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also get updates by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. And finally, please, once again, subscribe to your podcast app and continue walking through the Bible with us. As Jeff said, the power of the Word of God has the power to change hearts, has the power to

change lives, has the power to change even someone like you and like me. This is Father Mike Schmitz. God bless you. I cannot wait to be on this road with you.