Section 1/Part 3
Articles 8-12
The Path to Restoration
The Path to Restoration
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After the Fall of Adam and Eve’s Fall from grace, God’s ne w plan is revealed
through the Scriptures and Tradition
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He seeks to restore to humanity what was lost in the Fall
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He makes a promise to our first parents
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Makes Covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David.
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Through these Covenants, God establishes his intent to call a Chose People to be his light
for all the nations.
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Gives the people the Law to teach them how to live in right relationship with him and with
one another.
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Unfortunately, the continued impact of Original Sin on the Chosen People fail to keep up
their end of the Covenant allows them to suffer many terrible consequences because of
their lack of faith.
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God does not give up on us. His love, patience, and understanding have no human limits.
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God’s prophets keep warning, directing and comforting the Chose People. Their message
contained hints at what was to come in God’s wonderful plan for our salvation.
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God would send a Messiah, a chosen one, who would fully restore humanity’s original
holiness and justice. This chosen one would lead with justice, proclaim peace and as the
Suffering Servant, take upon himself all our sins. Chosen people began to wait in hope.
Article 8/God’s Promise to Adam
and Eve
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After the Fall things seem bleak for the human race
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Consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:14-19)
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Adam and Eve, symbolic of all humanity have lost God’s gifts of original
holiness and justice
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Their relationship with God, each other and earth are more difficult and
challenging
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Third chapter of Genesis is great spiritual truth: even amidst the greatest
of tragedies, God does not abandon us. For those who have faith, God will
bring good even from sin and suffering.
Article 8/The Protoevangelium
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Genesis 3:15/Known as the Protoevangelium –”first gospel.”The literal sense of this
verse is that it is an etiology; it explains why snakes and people do not get along very
well.
After Christ’s death, Resurrection, the church fathers saw a deeper, spiritual sense in
the verse. This was interpreted as God’s firs promise to send a Savior to free humanity
from the effects of the Fall
Literal sense-form of biblical interpretation that considers the explicit meaning of the
text. It lays the foundation for all other senses of the Scriptures.
Spiritual sense-a form of biblical interpretation that goes beyond the literal sense to
consider what the realities and events of the Scriptures signify and mean for salvation.
See chart page 38 of text. This helps in the interpretation of literal sign and Spiritual
meaning.
As Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, God is making a covenant or promise, that
he will save humanity from the damage caused by Satan’s deception.
In this interpretation, Mary is the new Eve and Christ is the new Adam.
As the Mother of God, Mary is the first to benefit from Christ’s victory over sin. She
is conceived without Original Sin and with special grace from God, remains free from
sin throughout her entire life.
Article 8/Sin Increases, God
Remains Faithful
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These two accounts that follow the Fall in the primeval history serve two
purposes.
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First, they show the growth and worsening of sin.
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Second, they show that no matter how bad humanity fell, God remained faithful in
finding a way to keep his plan of salvation.
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First Account: Cain and Abel (Genesis 4: 1-16)
 Story of jealousy and fratricide –to kill one’s own brother or sister.
 Cain and Abel
 Adam and Eve’s first two sons
 Symbols of the two primary ways people fed themselves in biblical
times: the shepherds raised animals and the farmers grew crops.
 Both offered the appropriate sacrifice to God.
 God liked Abel’s sacrifice better(because he offered the best of what
he raised)
 Cain was jealous so he killed Abel which was the first sin after the
Fall, brother killing brother
Article 8/Sin Increases, God
Remains Faithful
 Second Account: Noah and the Flood (Genesis 6:5-9:17)
 Two versions of the generations from Adam to Noah.
 Humankind has greatly increased in number
 Humankind has also greatly increased in sin.
 One just man, Noah, and his family. Through Noah and his
family, God was able to:
 Continue his promise to save the descendants of Adam and
Eve
 Makes an explicit Covenant with Noah and through Noah with
all humankind and all creation: “Never again shall all bodily
creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood” (9:11)-God
marked this promise with a rainbow.
 God committed to saving humanity by some different means
that by destroying all sinners.
Article 8/Sin Increases, God
Remains Faithful
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The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)
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Babel-another spelling of Babylon, the nation and city where the Israelite
leaders were brought as captives.
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Babylonians, or more likely their slaves, built tall towers called ziggurats
that were the center of politics and religion.
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During the Exile-the period of the Israelite captivity in Babylon after the
destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, the Israelites would have remembered
these as places of idolatry, the worship of false gods.
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The account of the tower of Babel tells about people who tried to make
themselves like gods and made god in their own image, something the
Israelites had firsthand experience.
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Keeping his promise not to destroy all the sinful people with a natural
disaster, God instead makes them speak different languages so they can’t
understand each other (etiology). This allows God to keep his plan of
salvation in motion.
Article 9/The Old Testament
Covenants: Part One
 Israel is unique. Their covenants are not with
other kingdoms but with God.
 God initiates these covenants and stays
faithful to them.
 Through the covenants God communicates the
love he has for humanity and his desire to
restore our communion with him.
 These covenants point us to the Paschal
Mystery-the redemption of all humanity
through Christ’s Passion, death, Resurrection
and Ascension.
Article 9/The Covenant with Noah
 Covenant with Noah extended to all the nations of the earth
and will remain in force as long as the world lasts. It is
universal in nature.
 After God makes this covenant with Noah, his descendants
multiplied to become all the nations of the world.
 Because of sin, these nations are always in danger of
polytheism-false belief in many gods.
 The covenant with Noah assures us that God is still at work
among these nations and will find its fulfillment in the New
Covenant that Jesus Christ extends to all the people of the
world.
Article 9/The Abrahamic Covenant
Chapter 12 of Genesis
 In his covenant with Abraham, God promises three things:
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1.
To make of him a great nation by promising Abraham many descendants
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To provide Abraham and his descendants a land of their own
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To make Abraham and his descendants a blessing for all the nations
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The third promise is the most important because Abraham’s descendants, who will later
be called Hebrews, Israelites and Jews, to be an example to all other people of how to
live in right relationship with the one true God.
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In this third promise, God ask Abraham and his descendants to commit to these things:
1.
To walk with God-to recognize the one, true God (Genesis 17:1)
2.
To be blameless-to live a life without sin (see 17:1) and
3.
To practice circumcision as a physical mark of the covenant
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Abraham’s descendants- Isaac and Jacob(God renames Israel) are called the patriarchfather or leader of a tribe, clan, or tradition. (Isaac, Jacob and Abraham were the
patriarchs of the Israelite people)
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God’s covenant with Abraham prepares the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus
Christ
Article 10/The Old Testament
Covenants: Part Two
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The Mosaic Covenant
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Theophany-God breaking into the human dimension. This is the most aweinspiring event in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai.
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At Mount Sinai, God summons Moses to the mountaintop and renews with
Moses the Covenant he made with Abraham. He gives Moses a set of law that
the Israelites must follow as their part of the Covenant.
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This law is summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17)
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This law is also called the Mosaic Law or the Old Law. Breaking the law is
being unfaithful to the Covenant.
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Torah-first 5 books of the Old Testament.
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The Old Law is a step in God’s plan for restoring our original holiness and
justice.
Article 10/The Old Testament
Covenants: Part Two
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The Davidic Covenant
The covenant is delivered to King David by the prophet Nathan.
David wishes to build a permanent dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant-the
sacred box in which the tablets with the Ten Commandments are kept.
Although the southern kingdom was destroyed and there were no more
Davidic kings, Jesus Christ was a direct descendant of David.
Christ established the Kingdom of God, which will endure forever and over
which he reigns for eternity. Through him the covenant with David is
fulfilled.
All Old Testament covenants:
 Are part of God’s plan
 Assure us of God’s loving commitment to humanity
 Teach us how to live in right relationship with God and one another.
 Point us toward the restoration of our original holiness and justice.
 Point to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose life, death, Passion Resurrection and
Ascension-the Paschal Mystery-will bring these ancient Covenants to their final and
complete fulfillment.
 By sending his own Son, God has revealed himself fully to the world.
Article 11/Covenant Keeping:
Successes and Failures
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Judges of Israel
 Israelites settle in Canaan, led by Joshua
 Have no king, high priest, no president
 They exist as a confederation-an alliance of tribes or nations with no central
authority.
 Judges-appointed by God and settled disputes and were primarily military leaders
 Israelites forget the Law and the Covenant and abandon the Lord and follow other
gods which in turned provoked the Lord. God allows them to fall into the hands of
their enemies. When they realize their sin and repent, God raises up a judge to lead
the victory against the enemies, but again they prove they cannot follow the Law and
a bloody civil war arises.
 Despite the setbacks, God is faithful to the Covenant and does not abandon these
hopeless people.
Article 11/Covenant Keeping:
Successes and Failures
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The Monarchy
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The monarchy-a government or state headed by a single person, like a king or queen.
 Saul, David and Solomon/first three kings of Israel are historically committed
to god and promote the Law and the Covenant, but become flawed: Saul-lack of
trust, David-Lust and Solomon-greed.
 Despite their weakness, God works through them to unite the twelve tribes
into a strong, united kingdom and eventually to build a Temple in Jerusalem,
the center of Israelite worship.
 After Solomon’s death, the monarchy is split into two Kingdoms, Israel
and Judah that experience many successes and failures.
 Failing kings, Jeroboam-set up idolatrous places of worship and Judah-did evil
in the sight of the Lord
 Good kings: Asa, Hezekiah and Joshua-brought religious reform and destroyed
the places of idolatry and called the people to be faithful again to the
Covenant.
 Another step in God’s plan of salvation is that the monarchy firmly establishes
the Israelites as God’s Chosen People.
 Israelite nations are committed to the Law and the Covenant and will find its
fulfillment in the Kingdom of Heaven and the eternal Reign of Jesus Christ.
Article 11/Covenant Keeping:
Successes and Failures
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The Prophets
 Watchdogs of the Covenant and the Law.
 Call kings and the people to be faithful to the Covenant
 Warn of the consequences of failing to do so.
 Four major prophets- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel
 These faithful men endured ridicule, torture and even risked death to speak God’s
word
 They knew that the Israelites’ faithfulness to the Covenant was essential to God’s
plan of salvation.
Article 12/The Growing Messianic Hope
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Hope:
 An important virtue and a gift of faith.
 Creates in us a desire and an expectation for our salvation and the Kingdom of God.
 Prophets were God’s instruments of hope to his Chosen People.
 Revealed to the prophets a vision of a New Covenant and a new heavenly kingdom.
 Proclaiming their vision, the prophets gave the Chosen People hope for a future in
which humanity’s relationship with God would be fully restored.
 Centuries preceding the birth of Christ, many faithful Jews waited in expectant
hope for the promised Messiah who would deliver them from their earthly and
spiritual bondage.
 Their wait was over when Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, was
conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.