Daily Catholic Bible Reading - 24 November 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 24 2015

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 501

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112015.cfm

Daniel 2:31-45

Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He sees a gold headed image with a silver chest and arms, a brass belly and brass thighs and iron legs, with feet part iron and part clay. A stone smashes the image, and the gold, silver, brass, and iron are scattered in the wind. The stone then becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth.

What can this mean? Daniel explains it's a sequence of kingdoms. So... the gold head is Nebuchadnezzar and the silver chest and arms are a new kingdom which will replace him.  The brass belly and thighs represent the next kingdom and the iron legs represent the kingdom after that. This kingdom will be strong and weak (hence feet of iron and clay). Finally God raises up an ultimate kingdom which will destroy the other kingdoms and last forever.

Nebuchadnezzar is so impressed with this explanation he immediately falls on his face and converts to Judaism.

Daniel 3:57-61

(Bless the Lord)x5.  Given the previous section I assume that we now have to fall on our faces and convert to Judaism. 

Revelation 2:10

Again, a single verse picked out of context - the really interesting stuff comes immediately before this verse. Jesus refers to blaspheming false Jews in Smyrna who are members of the synagogue of Satan. (That's the Smyrna in Turkey by the way, not the one in Georgia, USA).

Luke 21:5-11

Jesus explains that we shouldn't be afraid of wars and terrorism because they are just signs of the second coming. Let's hope no one who believes in the apocalypse ever gets hold of nuclear weapons or sponsors terrorism. Oops - too late! There are lots of other signs too. They are in tomorrow's reading. Can you bear the suspense?

Daily Catholic Bible Reading - 23 November 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 23 2015

Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 501

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112015.cfm

Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20
The point of this chapter is, apparently, to show how wise Daniel was. (The conclusion is he is ten times wiser than all the magicians and astrologers in the realm!) But you have to wonder who wrote this, and when, because many of the historical references are inaccurate. For example, the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim was 606 BC, at which time Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem in 597 BC. By that time Jehohiakim was dead and his son, Jehoiachin was the ruler.

For full details see Bad History in the Book of Daniel by Farrell Till
http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/984bad.html

There's also an interesting food-related message in verses 11-16. 6)  Daniel proposes a test: See how the pulse eaters look compared to the meat eaters after ten days, and sure enough, the vegetarians were way "fairer and fatter."

Daniel 3:52-56
Once upon a time, three of Daniel’s friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were thrown into a "fiery furnace" by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, because they refused to bow down to the king's image. But the fire had no effect on the, even though it burnt the soldiers who threw them in. Weirdly, although only three men were in the fire, a fourth man was seen who looked like "a son of god".

The book of Daniel is claimed to have been written in the sixth century BC. However,  scholars are convinced that the book was actually written  centuries later in the second century BC.

Matthew 24:42,44
Just two cherry picked verses from this very interesting chapter which is full of talking points. A pity verse 45 missed the cut. It's a crucial verse for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Luke 21:1-4
This is one of my favourite parables in the bible:

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.”

And thus Jesus explains the concept of progressive taxation.

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With thanks to Steve Wells

Click here to buy his book!

Daily Catholic Bible Reading 22 November 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 22 2015

Sunday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 501

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112015.cfm

Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel’s dream. Sadly, whoever puts these readings together had missed out all the interesting stuff… Lions and leopards with wings and four heads and beasts with iron teeth and so on.

Psalms 93:1,2,5

It says here that the world doesn't move. Doh!

Revelation 1:5-8

A description of the second coming. Again, the best bits are not included in this extract. The only odd thing in this extract is that everyone will see Him arrive, including the people who crucified him.

Mark 11:9-10

All that’s been selected is two verses of “God is Great” – pity because Jesus does some interesting stuff in this chapter like getting his disciples to steal a horse and then He kills a fig tree.

John 18:33B-37

This is the scene where Pilate questions Jesus and comes to the conclusion that Jesus is not at fault. According to the account here, Jesus provides a detailed response to Pilate. But in the book of Matthew Jesus remains silent. Oops!

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With thanks to Steve Wells

Click here to buy his book!

Daily Catholic Bible Reading - 21 Nov 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 21 2015

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 501

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112015.cfm

1 Maccabee 6:1-13
Some puzzling historical contradictions in Maccabees. In 2 Maccabees we learn that Antiochus and his men were (with God's help and approval) smashed by stones, dismembered, and beheaded in a temple. But here we are told he was killed by grief or fright. But in 2 Maccabees 9 we are told he died of bowel disease.

Historical evidence suggests he died in Iran... http://www.britannica.com/biography/Antio

Psalms 9:2, 3, 4, 6, 16, 19
Here we learn that if we pray to God He will kill our enemies and destroy cities. Not sure how that works if both sides are praying for the same thing. Mutually Assured Destruction?

2 Timothy 1:10
Despite a complete lack of evidence, this says that Jesus has abolished death. Having said that, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that medical science will achieve that in a few decades. Unfortunately the verse picker missed 1:9 which explains that God selected us to be either saved or damned, and there isn't anything we can do about it. Some implications for free will then.

Luke 20:27-40

Jesus explains that everyone in heaven is unmarried. Does that mean that married people can't go to heaven, or do they get a heavenly divorce on arrival?

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With thanks to Steve Wells

Click here to buy his book!

 

Daily Catholic Bible Reading - 20 November 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 20 2015

Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 501

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112015.cfm

1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59
The usual stuff of God using people to kill people He doesn't like and then approving when their possessions are stolen by His people.

It's a shame about the cherry picking here because the whole chapter is worth reading for the rather comical references to God's people "falling on their faces". Not funny at first but after the third time... LOL

There is some confusion about how many soldiers Lysias had. There are three values to choose from:

• 60,000 (1 Maccabees 4:28)
• 80,000 (2 Maccabees 11:2)
• 110,000 (2 Maccabees 13:2)

1 Chronicles 29:10BCD, 11ABC, 11D-12A, 12BCD
The interesting line here is:

"all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine."

So clearly God owns the earth, and there are verses in Genesis and Exodus and Psalms which agree. 

But there's also a verse in Psalms which says the "earth belongs to the children of men." 

Doh!

John 10:27
"My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me."

And we know what happens to sheep don't we? (No that's not what I meant -I mean they get slaughtered).

Luke 19:45-48
As promised yesterday, Jesus gets angry and deliberately knocks over some tables.  (To be fair, He was provoked and He's only human).  

Now, you may have noticed that the description in Luke doesn't mention anything about tables being knocked over. That happens in slightly different versions of the story found in John and Matthew. The version in Matthew has Jesus armed with a whip!

 

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With thanks to Steve Wells

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Skeptics-Annotated-Bible-Version/dp/0988245108

Catholic Bible Reading for Nov 19 2015

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 19 2015

Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 500

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111915.cfm

1 Maccabees 2 15:29

An innocent sounding phrase pops up here... "Zeal for the law." I wonder what inspirational examples of "zeal for the law" we will learn about here? Well first, we have Mathathias who shows his "zeal for the law" by murdering a man on the altar along with another man who Antiochus had sent. Then we get a cross-reference to Phineas as another example of "zeal for the law." In that example, Phineas saw a man of Israel and a Midianite woman having sex, so he drove a spear through their bodies and killed them both.

And God was so pleased to see this killing that He terminated an ongoing plague that He had started a few weeks previously (24,000 people had died so far). See #27 in the list of God's killings...
http://revjimc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rgfsmcl-030.html

Psalm 50: 1B-2 5-6 14-15
I don't know if it's deliberate but this section skips right over verses 10 to 12 where God takes credit for designing all life on Earth. So the message to any children with "eye worm" parasites making them blind is - that's God's design.

Psalm 95:8
Harden not your heart. Good advice. 

Luke 19: 41-44
This is the story of Jesus smashing up tables in the temple where the money changers were trading. (The extract stops short of the good bit - spoiler alert - that's coming tomorrow!) It's a good story I think, but there are contradictory accounts of when it happened. John says it was at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Luke says on the day of his triumphal entry. Matthew says it was the day after. But never mind. At least Jesus could recommend a local carpenter who could fix the tables. 

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With thanks to Steve Wells

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Skeptics-Annotated-Bible-Version/dp/0988245108

Steve Wells

I've referred to Steve Wells in the past, in reference to the list of God's Killings.

I also highly recommend his annotated bible  .

And of course, his blog


Even better... buy some of his other excellent books