Catholic Bible College

Word of God in Its Jewish Milieu.

This is one of various projects or courses offered by the College. It takes its inspiration from the Bat Kol Institute (http://www.batkol.info), a well established centre in Jerusalem that promotes the ideals of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate. It has subsequently been inspired by Pope John Paul II and by the Pontifical Biblical Commission. It does this by promoting Jewish methods of bible study for Christians.

The College project is undertaken with the full approval of the Bat Kol Institute and is run in conjunction with the Catechetical Department of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg.

The course is designed as a series of one-year cycles of study of the biblical texts, the selection of readings for each year being based on the Sunday Lectionary or an alternative rationale (e.g. major feast days, sacraments, parables).

The course teaches participants to engage in Jewish methodologies and to learn to read the scripture as Jesus would have read it. This is achieved through havrutah, one-to-one or small group discussion that probes the text by means of focussed questions, searching for possible meanings that might easily be overlooked; through relevant input; and through access to Jewish sources (Talmud, midrash etc.) Additional light is thrown on the text through contact with the writings of the Church Fathers.

Each participant is encouraged to re-teach the material to others (children’s catechetical classes, adult bible study or prayer groups etc.) as appropriate, in the ensuing month.

A fee is charged for participation, on a one year cycle basis, and this is kept at a very low level so that no one is excluded or disadvantaged through being unable to pay. The project was initiated in 2008 and in that year was run with financial support from the Bat Kol Institute. The project is currently being funded by Aid to the Church in Need.

The Goal of the course is to educate interested persons in the Church, and particularly catechists, in Jewish methods of reading and interpreting the Gospel accounts with a view to enhancing their understanding of the text and ways of making it applicable to their own lives and ministries.

Since 2008, the following have been and/or is being offered:

2008: Encounter & Relationship: The Gospels as Jewish Literature	2009: Gospels in their Jewish Context	2010: The Jewish Roots and the Christian understanding of the Sacraments	2011: The Parables of Mathew: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation
Unit 1 Brief history of Jewish-Christian relations and recent Church teachings on Judaism and Christianity	Unit 1 Temptations of Jesus in the Desert	Unit 10 the Sacrament of Baptism	Unit 1 Matthew 13:1-23
Unit 2 Celebrating the Exodus story/Passover. [Luke 2:41]	Unit 2 The Annunciation	Unit 11 the Sacrament of Confirmation	Unit 2 Matthew 13:24-53
Unit 3 The Akedah (Binding of Isaac) [Heb 11:8-19]	Unit 3 On the Road to Emmaus	Unit 12 the Sacrament of the Eucharist	Unit 3 Matthew 18:12-14; 23-35
Unit 4 The Parable of the Two Brothers and their Father: [Luke 15:11-32, Gen 25]	Unit 4 Pentecost	Unit 13 the Sacrament of Reconciliation	Unit 4 Matthew 20:1-16; 21:28-32
Unit 5 The Samaritan Woman encounters Jesus at the well. [John 4:1-42]	Unit 5 A Girl Raised & A Woman Healed	Unit 14 the Sacrament of Marriage	Unit 5 Matthew 21:33-46
Unit 6 The Sabbath: [Luke 4:16]	Unit 6 The Transfiguration of Jesus	Unit 15 the Sacrament of Priesthood	Unit 6 Matthew 22:1-14
Unit 7 How to Gain Eternal Life: [Mark 10:17-31; Matt. 19:16-30; Luke 18:18-30]	Unit 7 Who Do You Say That I Am	Unit 16 the Sacrament of the Sick	Unit 7 Matthew 25:1-13
Unit 8 Mary and the Nativity stories. [Matt. 1-2; Luke 1-2]	Unit 8 Anyone Who is Not Against Me is For Me (Discipleship)	Unit 17 Jesus as THE Sacrament	Unit 8 Matthew 25:14-30
Unit 9 Mary’s Purification [Luke 2.22 and Leviticus 12]	Unit 9 The Beatitudes	Unit 18 the Church as Sacrament	Unit 9 Matthew 25:31-46
Unit 10 The Jewish understanding as a legitimate reading of the text

We are running a repeat of the sessions for The Sacraments in 2011as requested by interested persons.