Did you ever wonder why the Hebrew scriptures are appended to the stories about Jesus and the early church along with advice to the first followers?
Let’s take a look at a story from the Christian scriptures called the Road to Emmaus found in Luke’s history. Two of Jesus’s followers were walking to a village called Emmaus shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They were trying to get their minds around these sudden turns of events.
A man joined them along the way. He explained to them from the Hebrew scriptures the meaning of Jesus’s coming, ministry, death, and resurrection. They sort of went, “Wow, that makes sense.” They reached a house and had something to eat. The stranger took a loaf of bread, blessed it, and broke it. The two guys went something like, “Hey, wait a minute, you’re Jesus, aren’t you?” And the man disappeared.
The first Jesus-followers took that story to heart and searched through those ancient texts looking for every mention that could point to Jesus. And that is why the first council of bishops back in the 4th Century appended the section we call the Old Testament to the Christian scriptures called the New Testament when then compiled the first Bible. (Yes, there was no Bible for 300 years.)
Now let me take you to a different time and place. I attended freshman chemistry with 699 of my closest friends. Well, actually, I probably knew 10. Grading was done on a strict normal curve. A small percentage received As, a larger group received Bs, a massive group got Cs, a group larger than the Bs got Ds, and a group larger than the As received Fs.
I was getting Cs. Then somehow I was invited to form a small chemistry study group. We went over the texts and notes before the tests (there were two tests that combined formed your grade). After being in the study group, my grade went to B.
Yes, I’m suggesting that small study groups form a tool that would be of great help in pursuing your spiritual discipline of study.
I suggest a few ground rules.
- Agree that everyone is willing to learn new things
- Keep an open mind
- Don’t let someone with fixed opinions on everything to dominate the discussion—a good leader/moderator gets everyone involved
- Keep discussion open and civil
- Agree to disagree (agreement is nigh on to impossible at times)
- Psychologist Adam Grant says that we all tend to either be prosecutors, preachers, or politicians meaning that we have the right answer and seek to impart it; rather be a scientist who puts forth a hypothesis and then invites disagreement in order to prove or disprove it.
Footnote: I have read a few Jewish Rabbis who have rebutted the claims of those early Christians about John as a prophet and Jesus as a Messiah. They “prove” from text and tradition that neither meet the criteria. That is the intellectual reason that in general Jews do not accept the entire Christian story.
Faith Venture 
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