Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

My God, I adore and thank your loving and wise Providence, manifested on every page of Sacred Scripture. You have always been close to sinful and erring humanity, and have indicated the way and given hope. Amid the shadows of error and corruption, you kindled the light of your truth; amid universal corruption, you are the Just One; amid so much idolatry, humanity in every corner of the earth has cultivated a sincere worship of you.
Let my reading today increase my trust in your goodness, your mercy, and your unfailing faithfulness.

Today's chapters are 1 Maccabees 1-3 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 85 and 86.

We are continuing to read "deuterocanonical" books: texts that appear in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles (as well as in the Bibles of other ancient Eastern Churches), but not in standard Protestant Bibles. 

The two books of Maccabees (and they are two distinct books, not a two-volume set) bring us forward quite a few centuries, practically to the doorstep of the New Testament. Kingdom has replaced kingdom, and the biblical author helpfully gives us the socio-political setting just after the reign of Alexander the Great. The principal characters are members of a Levite family: this is where all that we learned in Leviticus and Chronicles will come in handy.

Psalm 85 appears in many Advent antiphons because of its verse "truth shall spring up from the earth and justice look down from Heaven." St Irenaeus of Lyon (second century!!) saw this as a prophecy of the virginal conception of Christ in Mary's womb. St Augustine made a similar comment: "Truth, then, is sprung out of the earth: Christ who said, 'I am the Truth' is born of a virgin..." (Sermon 185). 

Other words from the psalm have been incorporated into one of the options for the Penitential Act in the Mass: 

The Priest:
Show us, O Lord, your mercy.
The people:
And grant us your salvation.

Start reading 1 Maccabees here and the Psalms here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.