Readings for the Week
August 13-18, 2018
The Bible In A Year
Torah – week 6 of 8
Theme of the week: This week we will spend a few days exploring the role of the priests.
- Monday Numbers chapters 13 & 14 and Psalm 143
- Tuesday Leviticus chapters 8, 9 & 10
- Wednesday Numbers chapters 16, 17 & 18 and Leviticus chapter 2
- Thursday Numbers chapters 20 & 21, Psalms 114 & 95
- Friday Numbers chapters 22, 23, & 24
- Saturday Numbers chapters 25, 26, 27:1-11, 36Leviticus chapter 25
The Bible In A Year – Torah – week 6 of 8
A Framework for Understanding
Where did the Bible Come From?
The earliest records were kept on mud or stone tablets. These were cumbersome, to say the least, both for writing and for transporting. Due to this limitation, few communities had access to such tablets.
After a time, people began to write on leather, and roll it up to protect and transport it. Then came the development of lighter materials, parchment and paper, which eventually led to scrolls. These allowed much more information to be stored in a much more manageable way – rather like the invention of the micro chip in our day.
Still, to acquire a written account of the history of a people, or the stories of their faith was a rare opportunity. Each scroll had to be copied by hand. In order to do this one had to have the materials needed to make the paper, and the services of someone who could read and write. Copying the scroll would take a tremendous amount of time and concentration: there was no “white out” to cover goofs.
Due to the difficulties in producing duplicates of the scrolls – the time, expense, skill, and additional resources – most communities had only one or perhaps a few scrolls. Therefore, the scrolls available were always read aloud so that everyone could share. Scrolls were read aloud over and over again, so that in the course of a lifetime texts were being committed to memory, reinforcing the oral tradition, but with less variation in their retelling.
In cities with an actual library, it was considered rude to read silently! Libraries were very noisy because anyone reading would do so aloud – at the same time as others! This was a courtesy to others because they, too, could gain wisdom from the writings by hearing them, even if they couldn’t read or someone else was reading the only copy of that scroll. This practice continues to this day as spiritual discipline in some communities.