Also by John Bergsma, commentary on the Sunday readings:
The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A
The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year B
The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C
The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Mass Readings for Solemnities and Feasts
Anglican priest and Scripture scholar Esau McCaulley delves into key passages of Paul's letters (among dozens of other biblical books) that were historically twisted to uphold the institution of slavery and racial injustice in the United States. His book, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, is especially addressed to Black readers, but I found it extremely relevant to the questions American society is facing. McCaulley looks at several key areas in which the Scriptures have been kept from speaking fully to the American situation: prison reform, politics, justice, protest. He brings his broad knowledge of the Word of God to bear on the issues. (I have dozens of paragraphs marked for further reflection.) His reflection on slavery (and on the applications of Deuteronomy 23) is amazing.
Dr John Bergsma's Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood demonstrates how many of the Old Testament prefigurings and institutions were fulfilled (super-abundantly!) in Jesus and in the Church. This is especially clear in the Gospel of John, which in a way is the most "priestly" of the four Gospels. If you have questions about the priesthood in the Church, or about the difference between our baptismal participation in the priesthood of Christ and that exercised by our ministerial priests, or even simple questions like why Catholics call priests "Father" (when Jesus said, "Call no one on earth 'father'"), or if you would like to see in a fuller way how very many Old Testament types were pointing to Jesus and to the Church, this very readable book is for you.
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah, by Louisiana native Dr. Brant Pitre, presents the Mother of Jesus in the light of the Old Testament "types" (prefigurings that were historically real, but also prophetic symbols). This is especially important as we read the Gospel of John. Dr Pitre is an engaging author; I made great use of the Catholic Introduction to the Bible (Old Testament) that he and Dr Bergsma co-authored.
Dr Edward Sri's companion to the Gospel of Matthew is a good study guide: it even has reflection questions and space for you to write your answers! Mystery of the Kingdom: On the Gospel of Matthew (Kingdom Studies)
Do you get tripped up by the parables? We can go far astray in grasping Jesus' point if we interpret his parables from the individualistic standpoint of the 21st century. As we read some of the most beloved parables of Luke, you might find this double volume extremely enlightening, as I did. The author of Poet & Peasant lived and taught in the Middle East for decades, and brings his intimate awareness of traditional cultural expectations to bear specifically on the parables of Luke. Granted, the degree of literary analysis is meant for doctoral students, the cultural parts are very graspable. Please note that the author is not Catholic, so sometimes his comments reflect an approach to the Bible or Church life that is disconnected from the continuous tradition we know in the Catholic and also Orthodox Churches.
Dr. John Bergsma's fascinating presentation,Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity, gives the ordinary reader a sense of the many points of contact between the Gospels and the culture, spirituality, writings, and expectations of the Essenes. In many ways living a kind of porto-monasticism, the Essene communities sought to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of David through fidelity to the "works of the Law" (sound familiar?) in rigorous cultic purity. Their leadership seems to have descended from the Aaronic high priesthood, and their founder was clearly a prophetic soul imbued with the Holy Spirit. Many practices and expressions that we find in the Gospels and the letters of St Paul are found nowhere else in extant literature than in the Dead Sea Scrolls, making them amazingly valuable in authenticating, from a purely historical perspective, some of the very details that had been deprecated by "historical criticism" as invented or anachronistic.
Are you intimidated by St. Paul? N.T. Wright's Paul: A Biography is the book I would recommend to someone who wanted to read one (only one) book that combined the life and letters of St Paul. Written by a noted Scripture, this is a flowing narrative that is scripturally enlightening and historically sound. Wright gives the reader a way of following Paul through the Acts of the Apostles and the writing of his letters, making Paul the person that much more approachable, and the letters themselves more readable as a result of having a social and historical context.
The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ by Dr. Brant Pitre is a book of apologetics: not apologizing for the faith, but defending and explaining things that can be easily misunderstood. In this case, Pitre presents the person and ministry of Jesus in the light of Scripture and history in a readable, convincing way.
I don't have a lot of resources specific to Acts, but if you would like to go further into this unique book of the Bible, the two-volume set (Witnesses of the Messiah for Acts 1-15, and Envoy of the Messiah for Acts 16-18) by Stephen Pimentel seems to fit the bill. The sections include study questions for groups, too!
Years ago I attended a lecture series by Dr James Papandrea on the Book of Revelation and found it very helpful. His book, The Wedding of the Lamb: A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation, is kind of expensive, but there is a Kindle version in case you are looking for a companion to Revelation by a Catholic theologian.
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