Within the scripture, the word “fulfillment” refers to the resolution or coming to happen of the promises prophesized by the prophets. We know that the Old Testament was left with an open end awaiting for the new covenant to come with a new king. In the new Testament, this promise is fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ, as he is what God promised. The heir to the throne of David who will bless his people as it was promised to Abraham. Along the scripture, it is important to consider the past moments of God’s kingdom and see in them the pattern of promises to come. The fulfillment within the scripture works as a resolution of God’s love to humanity. In Mathew 2 and in Hosea 11, Jesus is referred as the fulfillment awaited as they say: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Since only God can be king to the humans, it is only his Son, Jesus Christ, who can be king to the Israelites. It is then through God’s son (the elect) that will die and resurrect to save the world from sin and fulfill God’s promises.

Since the New Testament is a continuation and a resolution/fulfillment of the Old Testament, it is only logic to have references to it. In Like, Gabriel says that Jesus will take the house of Jacob, and it had been said before that it was in David’s lineage that the new king would come as well as it was said that only God would be king to the people of Israel. The way in which these two come together to have sense is in that Christ, son of God, is born from the descendant of David, the Virgin Mary. The purpose of the Old Testament is to set up the promises made by God that are later fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

It is clear in the readings of Numbers that Israel’s condemnation in the wilderness is due to their rejection of God. They were dissatisfied and distrusted God and His plan, and as a consequence the generation was condemned. Their dissatisfaction towards God can be seen both when they complain about the manna given by God and when they dared to insist that they were better off in Egypt under slavery. They were not ready to follow God’s plan and distrusted Him, for this reason God did not allow them to go into the promised land. God punished the people with the plague. Later on, they distrusted God promise of handing them the promised land and so God condemned them to reside for 40 years just outside the promised land and abandons them when they try to take over the territory without Him.

The death of Moses at the end of the Pentateuch, is not a let down, but rather an important lesson for the Israelites. By his passing, the Israelites are reminded that Moses is just a human. Even though he has been glorified by his close connection to God, the people of Israel must maintain that the power behind is that of God and not that of Moses. Furthermore, his passing of the power to Joshua is a key lesson to the Israelites about the importance of passing down tradition and power from leaders to future generations peacefully.

Purity and impurity or often used as clean or unclean in Leviticus, seem to have a relationship to the natural order of human nature. Mary Douglas refers to this idea of order when she states: “uncleanness is matter out of place.” If cleanness or purity then refers to the order of human nature, sexual impurity must refer to behaving in a manner not coherent with our nature and the purpose of our sexuality.

God require us to maintain purity for the sake of communion, which he seeks to achieve throughout Leviticus. The “requirements” or commandments or instructions laid down by God are most often guidelines to how to live accordingly to our nature (which is in his image) than they are restrictions. Maintaining purity, then, is a way to maintain order. By requiring us to maintain purity, God requires us to maintain order. By maintaining order, we can achieve communion with God and successfully carry out His divine project. If there is such a thing as community, there must also be the opposite. And hence, impurity is that which represents disorder and rupture with God. 

The logic of the laws related to food and in particular the food laws have the purpose of strengthening communion and maintaining order in human life. As in the case of cooked and uncooked meals, Douglas explains that this lesson is meant for the safety of human beings. It is now common knowledge that uncooked meat carries diseases and react poorly with the digestive system. In this sense, a consequence of eating raw meat is disease, which is opposite to health. The diseases provoked by such then, were seen as a punishment from God and opposite to what he expects on us. The rules concerning what animals we can eat place us in connection with God since we think of Him and offer devotion before every meal. 

The question to Who is God is one to which we have attempted to answer for far too many years. A question we’ll perhaps never truly answer before we go into eternal rest. The definitions of God broad from “I am who I am” to even the possibility of a wide array of Gods represented by the different aspects of nature. When it comes to the understanding of the Jewish or Christian God, many understand that He is beyond our full understanding. Even Pascal would rather admit that God is so far beyond our comprehension that it is a matter of whether you would throw into the wager or not of his existence. 

Ratzinger, on his own behalf proposes the idea of God as a personal being, a powerful being and a promising being. There is always going to be a side of God that is influenced by your own perception of Him. Through you, you get to personalize your own relationship with God and your personal perception of Him. This perspective is evident mostly on the physical representations of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is black Jesus, Asian Jesus and even brown Jesus to relate with his followers all around the world. Then, there is the common vision of God all powerful, omniscient, omnipotent, the creator of all and ultimate judge in our world. Finally, there is the God in which we believe out of need. To answer to our existential crisis and understand the world without indulging in fear of eternal darkness we believe in God as hope for an afterlife. In a similar way, we believe in God to have a companion through life and have hope of a better future.

When Joseph was young, he was clearly his father’s favorite. As seen both in the bible and in Anderson’s analysis: “the act of favoritism becomes a legitimate source of intense anger.” A topic frequently addressed in the bible in a number of brotherly struggles (Cain & Abel and Jacob & Esau). Joseph’s father, Jacob, even gave his beloved son a colorful mantle to show him that he was the favorite. As a consequence, the envy, jealousy and hatred of his brothers led them to even consider taking his life. They had thrown him into a hole with no food and water. This event, as explained by Anderson, is considered a ‘death’ experience since he is humiliated and “entrapment in a pit is strongly associated with entering the underworld.” 

When a group of Egyptians passed by, his brothers, instead of killing him, decided to sell him as a slave. In Egypt, he became widely popular for interpreting dreams and warned the pharaoh about his dream being a warning regarding 7 years of famine. This event granted him a position of importance, where in the future people all over Egypt and even his brothers came to him seeking for food. In an attempt to test his brothers, he planted a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag (Benjamin was considered the favorite son after his brothers told Jacob that he had died). Joseph’s ultima goal was to see whether his brothers remained the same or not. This time around, however, his brother Judah offered to give his own life for his brother’s.

These chapters, as the rest of Genesis, are quite confusing due to excessive amount of metaphorical content and hidden lessons and messages. Similarly, the conflict faced by Jacob is most likely some inner reflection of human nature and the conflictive struggle between our divine existence made in the likeliness of God and our ability to choose alternatively our ungodly side. Once again, there is a pattern in the sense that the resolution of Jacob’s struggle is both a win and a lose that is then followed up by a change made by God. The physical fighting is said to be won by Jacob, who rose victorious but wounded. His opponent then accepts defeat by giving up and giving his blessing to Jacob. Contrary to his physical achievements, Jacob seems to bend the knee on a more personal struggle. When asked by his opponent what his name is to receive the blessing, Jacob does not lie. In this way, Jacob owns up to his own responsibilities and to his own mistakes and crimes. By owning his errors, Jacob repairs his relationship with God and is given a new name as a form of rebirth. To symbolize this personal growth and to forever remind Jacob of this moment, God left Jacob with a limp for him to remember that he will always need the help of others.

Finally, it is hard to tell who the mysterious challenger is since he is never quite said. Important to mention is that there is a resemblance to be observed between the struggle with the unknown figure and Jacob’s struggles with his brother. Alike Cain, Jacob fought against Esau because of his envy, because he wanted to take his birth right and seek for glory. In such a way, this second fight is also a reflection of Jacob’s struggle with both Esau and God, who I believe to be his main opponents.

When prompt with the question “What is religion?” my first instinct is to look up at the most common religions: Judaism, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. Upon observing these religions, I start by realizing a common focus to abide to a certain number of scriptures and follow the teachings of one or more gods into finding the purpose of life. However, Buddhism then steps into the picture as a godless religion and that throws me off track. Personally, regarding such a conflictive topic I would probably avoid attempting the question altogether. Fortunately, my unwillingness to write down a possible definition of God is unlike my willingness to judge Marty’s five features of religion. 

On the one hand, I agree on Martyr’s concept of community as fundamental behind the idea of religion as well as ultimate concerns. Ultimate concern is in the text defined as what are you willing to kill for? However, since many religions oppose the idea of murdering, I would rephrase ultimate concerns for what would you be willing to die for. Since religions ask of their members to follow a fixed set of values and morals, then it is not hard to understand why people who think and behave alike would not create a community among each other. Not to mention that the value of community is one of the many values emphasized by religions. Finally, by defining what is good/worthy/valuable and what is the opposite, religion teaches its members to consider what is worth protecting and dying for as well as what should be least important in your life. Under these characteristics, and removing the fact that there must be a God(s) in religion, it would not be impossible to characterize nationalism/patriotism as faith and the a government/country as a religion to be followed.

On page 178 it says: “Faith is the distinctive way we know God.” Through his text, Wilken redefines what we mean by faith. Rather than blind trust or an ignorant’s belief, faith is an essential step one must take to know God. To better explain what he means, Wilken also states “Belief, that is, faith is a constituent part of historical knowledge.” Wilken compares the faith we must have in God and with the apostles and with the authors of the bible with the faith we must have in historical evidence or past testimonies. In either case there are no living first-hand witnesses, and so we can only believe in what has been passed down to us. We understand the importance of faith since “Without faith there is no seeing and hence no genuine knowledge of God,” as said in page 178. Augustine and Wilken then come to the understanding that what used to be disregarded as the unrighteous use of authority to defend God, actually has a higher level of importance. As described on page 174: “Authority invites belief and prepares man for reason. Reason leads to understanding and knowledge.” The real question at hand is not what to believe, but rather who to believe and that is why authority plays such an important role in learning about God. Faith is unavoidable and beneficial because it is only by having faith that we can know the Word of God. A passage that thoroughly reflects the importance of faith is the response from God to Thomas:

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John 20:29

After living his whole life by God’s side and knowing what He is capable of and absolutely sure that God is almighty and our creator it only seems logical that Abraham would obey God’s orders without second guessing. It is strange that knowing what we do (at least about the Catholic religion) that Abraham did in fact deceived his son and his men by not being honest about God’s request. After many years of close relationship, many gifts from God to Abraham and making Abraham so many promises of being the father of kingdoms to come, God decided to test his follower’s loyalty by asking of him the sacrifice of his only son.

These chapters of Genesis explain the vision of God as a mighty creator to be feared. Especially when placed alongside many of Jesus’s teachings, it is hard to find this God worthy of praising. God gives humanity free will, but when they decide not to follow Him, He sets on fire. Abraham too is complicit to many of God’s mischiefs. He went to Egypt and to Abim’elech and introduced his wife, Sarah, as his sister, knowing that they would be punished for wedding her. Straight out lying and dropping his enemies to a state of fear does not seem like the loving father version of God that we have. Merciless and punishing is a more accurate description of God in these chapters.

As a consequence, from the original sin Adam and Eve are banished from the garden of Eden with the warning that they shall die. For almost a millennium, Adam and his decedents live without fear of death from natural reasons. The first reported death was that of Abel who was killed by his brother Cain out of envy and violence. This event made all other humans aware of their mortality in the face of violence, but it wasn’t until Adam’s death that they became aware of their mortality in the face of nature. Upon this event, the desire of men for immortality became a desire for immortality through fame.

Faced by the possibility of death, humans became mad and self-destructive. They started to see the beauty in women. As tribes and families grew along each other they engaged in fighting and took the women by force. Kass here points out the difference between appreciating beauty and the exclusive desire to possess that overtook men. Since men obeyed no external law and forgot their mortality, God decided that it was time to destroy all of creation and restart his job. Fortunately, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. Noah was different to all other men because he was born after Adam died and hence was conscious of his mortality since birth. He was the prototype of a self-conscious mortal man. His simplicity and his virtues appealed to God. Since Noah walked with God and evidenced that righteousness was better than heroic manliness, God decided to spare him and allow him to replenish life in Earth. The flood then became the fitting response to men’s self destructiveness.