Bible Study Leftover
Now a couple of us go to a Friday men’s Emmaus breakfast group in addition to our Wednesday afternoon group which discusses the previous Sunday Readings. But as it happens the Friday group treats the readings for the upcoming Sunday, so it serves as a kind of preparation and familiarization for the Wednesday meeting.
Wednesday we talked the most about the First Reading (Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25) and the Psalm (41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14) which are related to some extent with regard to their concentration on the rescuing and forgiveness of God. On Wednesday we draw upon some printed study material, but the Friday group concentrates almost entirely on the scriptures themselves, so it is a somewhat more free-wheeling, generating many stories containing the language and experiences typical of men. The Wednesday group is mixed, so it doesn’t veer off into a masculine world-view.
Anyway, on Wednesday we read a bit more of the Isaiah than is included in the actual reading. Perhaps our moderator felt the reading did not stand on its own too well. There were a few names and concepts which needed to be expanded on — Jacob, wild beasts, rivers, holocaust, and “the ban” (’reviling’ or ‘curse’ in some versions), so that I don’t think we came to a particularly good grasp of what the text contains.
