SALT LAKE CITY — Enthusiastic Bible student Father Samuel Dinsdale will share some of his own insights as well as those of other biblical scholars at the 45th Annual Pastoral Congress Sept. 29 at the Skaggs Catholic Center. One of the featured speakers for "Encountering the Living Christ," sponsored by the Diocesan Office of Religious Education, Fr. Dinsdale, pastoral associate at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, Park City, will speak about how we encounter the living, triune God in the Old Testament. "The Old Testament is vast," Fr. Dinsdale said in a Sept. 17 interview with the Intermountain Catholic. "Technically, the Hebrew Scriptures are defined as the Pentateuch, the first five book of the Old Testament – the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Some would add the Books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. But to study the entirety of the Old Testament, one needs to study the Historical books, the Wisdom Books, and the Prophetic Books as well." Deep into the preparations for his presentation, Fr. Dinsdale said he will look at how we as Catholics look at the Old Testament and how God is presented without our understanding of the New Testament. "Does our Christian understanding of the New Testament eclipse the Old Testament?" Fr. Dinsdale asked. "We must be careful about that. We have to make sure we aren’t reading the New Testament into the Old Testament." It’s important to understand that the books of the Old Testament are not all of the same genre, said Fr. Dinsdale. "Exodus may tell us where we came from, but it wasn’t written in the same way the book of Genesis was. Genesis is more poetic." Any of the books of the Old or New Testaments should be studied etiologically, he said, "seeking understanding. They should be read not so much as historical documents, but as stories about real people looking at myth to help them understand God." Studying the Old Testament inevitably leads one to ask difficult questions, he said. "Did Jonah really spend time in the belly of a whale? Did Moses really part the Red Sea? And who was Moses really?" Fr. Dinsdale said he reads the Old Testament with the understanding that some stories in it may indeed be myth. "How could people in those days possibly explain where they came from without myths? Biblical scholars and archeologists are asking that very question," he said. "If these stories are not all true, then what are their writers trying to tell us?" The Old Testament reveals sin, he said. "And it tries to answer what God does in response to sin. What we have in the Old Testament is a concept of Yahweh who, in relation to the other gods people of the times believed in, was a much gentler and kinder God." Fr. Dinsdale reminds us the people of the Old Testament, the Hebrews, rubbed shoulders with many different people who believed in many gods. "The Babylonians had their gods, and so did the Romans. It’s highly likely that David and Solomon worshipped other gods than Yahweh of the Old Testament. "As people of the New Testament, we can’t fail to understand that the Old Testament is a work of many people and a work of its time. We are challenged to keep the thoughts and beliefs separate while seeking an understanding of how we can relate to them." He said the Old Testament tells the story of the Hebrew experience of civilization over a large expanse of time. "In the context of the people, the Old Testament Yahweh is very different. He demanded devotion, but not the blood sacrifice of the believers’ children. And the Hebrew Yahweh wants a personal relationship with his people." It has only been in the last 50 or 60 years that biblical scholarship has approached the concept of Jesus as a man whose entire background was in Old Testament thinking. "When Jesus talked to his apostles of priests, he was talking about the Jewish priests of the Old Testament," Fr. Dinsdale said. "He was talking about Old Testament promises. That’s why the promises Jesus made were so revolutionary." Current biblical scholarship is the result of popes allowing Catholic scholars to put their heads together with Protestant scholars, Fr. Dinsdale said. "Biblical scholars are being encouraged to develop mutual understandings today. What we’re learning is that the Old Testament isn’t a set of literal, historical texts. It was never meant to be that way." Instead, he said, it is a reflection of the vast and tumultuous times in which it was written. "It’s about what was important to the people in the fifth and the 10th centuries B.C. "When we read the Old Testament we should be asking questions," Fr. Dinsdale said. "What is the Old Testament? What does it reveal to us? How do we as Christians understand the Old Testament? What does the Old Testament teach us about our faith? What were the lives of the people in the Old Testament like? "Only studying it in the context of its times will truly reveal the Old Testament’s meaning to us today," said Fr. Dinsdale. For further information about the 45th annual Diocesan Pastoral Congress or to register, call the Diocesan Office of Religious Education, 801-328-8641, ext. 326
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