The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Wed, 01 Jan 2025
Welcome to the official start of the Bible in a Year Podcast! We'll begin reading the Bible in the episode "Day 1: In the Beginning", but before we dig into scripture, Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike Schmitz to lay out the context for the Early World period (Genesis 1-11). They discuss the type of scripture we'll encounter (Hebrew poetry) and how that affects our understanding of the Word. This episode is not part of the 365 day reading plan, but is important to help understand the readings from this period. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What is the Bible in a Year Podcast about?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Welcome to the official start of the Bible in a Year podcast. Today, this is the day that we begin our journey. where we read through the entire Bible in 365 days.
But before we begin with day one, we have to first introduce the very first time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. So as you probably already know, what we'll be following over the course of this entire year, 365 days, is the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. And the person who created this
is the renowned Catholic Bible teacher, Mr. Jeff Cavins, to give you an introduction to the early world. This is gonna be so important. Like this episode is gonna be very important as we launch into the early world, which is the very first time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
So as you know, the reading plan that we're using, it's inspired by this Great Adventure Bible Timeline, which divides the Bible into 12 time periods. And if you have the Great Adventure Bible, those time periods are identified by different colors and that would serve kind of like as chapters in salvation history.
So every time we arrive at a new time period in the Bible, we're going to be able to have Jeff on this podcast to give you an introduction to that period. So my hope is that these episodes, these like beginning launching a new time period episodes will give you a deeper understanding of the biblical context and as we read through the Bible, because that's one of the goals we want to have.
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Chapter 2: Who is Jeff Cavins and why is he important?
We want to be able to understand the context as well as the stories. We're not just getting a collection of stories. We're also getting like the big story. And Jeff is here to do that. Before we begin, however, the Bible translation that I'm using, quick reminder, It is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension because it has all the color coding. It has all the timeline in it. You can follow along super easily. If you want to follow along, not only in your own Bible, but also know what's coming, we have a downloadable PDF that's the Bible in a Year Reading Plan. You can get it for free just by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
So if you want to get your Bible in a Year reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can sign up for our email list and get the updates and text messages, whatever, and probably not text messages, but the email list by texting the word Catholic Bible. I know that's two words, but we're combining them together. Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Again, just text
In your text function of your phone, just the number is 33777. And in the message part of it, just type all together, not two words, but one word, Catholic Bible. Lastly, please subscribe in your podcast app.
Chapter 3: What is the Great Adventure Bible Timeline?
So not only will you get an update every single time we drop an episode, which is gonna be every single day for the next 365 days, but also that way it kind of gives some more exposure and people can learn about this podcast. So all of that being said, let's get started. As I've mentioned before,
I have learned probably more about the Bible from one individual named Jeff Cavins than maybe any other human being on this planet. I am so grateful for him not only to have created the Great Adventure Bible timeline, but all of his other Bible studies, as well as I'm so grateful for his friendship because it would be an understatement if I called him a mentor.
It would be an understatement if I called him someone that I just find myself... Um, constantly referring to what he has taught me, what I've learned from him. Um, we're constantly referring to what I've heard him say or what I've read him, uh, read him, right. But we're joined today by Jeff Cavins.
He's going to get us, give us kind of basically, um, not only an overview of the first time period, which is the early world, but also give us a deeper dive into like, what can we expect over the next few days as we're reading through the early world. So with all that being said, Jeff.
Welcome. Thank you. It's good to be with you, Father. And, you know, you kind of feel like, remember when you were growing up and you knew that you were going to go on vacation starting in September, and it's the night before, and do you have everything together? Is everyone packed? Are we ready to go on this? And we are. We're launching. And congratulations to you.
It's going to be an exciting year and an opportunity for people to get the story. As you said earlier, you know, there's a lot of stories in the Bible, but what about the story and putting it all together? And I think over this next year, not only are you going to be able to read through it, but you're going to be able to give people some guidance and some inspiration. And, you know, the
The year 2020 was a big year as far as memory, but 2021 is going to be a real special year as far as new discoveries. So excited about it. And we're going to try to make it as simple as possible for people to read through it. And if you've never read the Bible before, don't worry. There was a time where I had never read the Bible before. Yeah.
I can't believe that. But I have to believe that because I know how time works. But Jeff, so one of the things that before, as we launch in, one of the pieces that's going to happen in every one of the podcasts is we will proclaim scripture. And I really think it's, not just being recited.
I think we really want to have it so that you get the sense that the people are listening, get the sense that it's being proclaimed, but also there's going to be a little guidance. At the end of every podcast, there's kind of some commentary that I'll offer or some kind of like, here's what I have gotten out of some reflections on this or trying to put things in context.
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Chapter 4: What themes are presented in Genesis 1-11?
And there was just a couple of caveats here, you know, where God said to them, you can freely eat of any tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you will die. die. And so at the very beginning, like any great book, at the beginning, we have what's at stake here.
You're free to eat of any of them except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of it, you're going to die. Then comes chapter three, where we have a new character. The enemy comes in, Satan, who's fallen. And he comes in and he says, did God say? Immediately starts questioning God. And Adam doesn't say anything.
And Eve steps in and he says, did God say you shall not eat of any tree? And the woman said, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. Well, Satan comes right back and says, you will not die. That's a lie. You're not going to die.
And so God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So this is really interesting, is that we're created, Adam and Eve are created in the image and likeness of God.
Yet the enemy kind of sneaks in and says, well, you see, he doesn't want you eating from that tree because if you do, you're going to be like him and he doesn't want that. And so it's an outright...
And the key here then is that when Eve looks at the tree, which you're going to be reading and talking about, when she looks at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you would think if it's so bad, you're going to see things like bank robbery, adultery, tax evasion, whatever it might be. The obviously bad, yeah. Yeah, really obvious things like duh, which in Hebrew is duh. But she doesn't.
What does she say? She looks at it and says, well, this stuff is good for the food. It's a delight to the eyes, and it makes one wise. What's not to like about that? So she ends up eating it and then gives it to Adam, and we have the fall, which is at the center here of this early world.
We have the fall, and we can't simplify it, Father, so much so that we just say, well, why did Adam and Eve fall? Well, God doesn't get into fruit. I mean, it's not that.
He's like, I really want the vegetable trees. That's the ones I really want.
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Chapter 5: How do Hebrew poetry and historical narratives differ?
I took a piece of fruit to sibling murder, you know, fratricide. Very quickly. That escalated quickly in so many words. But how important is it, do you think, that... I think it can't be overstated, the importance of getting these first pieces of the story nailed down, that God is good. He made this world good. He made human beings good. And then we took all that goodness and we distorted it.
We broke it by... And we didn't need to, but we chose to. And even, like you're mentioning, the Cain and Abel story comes next where God says to Cain, you don't have to give in to this sin. The devil's a demon looking at your door, but you can resist him. There's still hope even in the midst of this brokenness.
Yeah. There is, and that's the good news here. You're going to see with the fall of Adam and Eve that their relationship with God changed. They were afraid. They hid. And a lot of people can identify with this. You know, I'm afraid. I'm hiding from God. It changed their relationship with each other. They didn't trust each other. And it changed their relationship with creation.
They no longer looked at themselves as really stewards, but they abused even, you know. Yeah. And so it changed every relationship, but God has a plan. He has a plan of sheer goodness. And as you see the rest of the early world played out, you run into the beginnings of this great flood.
It's almost like God saying, you know, Ixnay on the first creation, you know, and he wants to start over, but he takes the family of Noah, his wife, and and their three sons and their wives, and they build an ark. And while this seems like a children's story in some ways, it's not.
Because we hear it as kids. It's not a kid's story. In what way, kind of a last thing, so that people who are listening to the podcast can jump into episode one and hear the story proclaimed to them. What is that not children's part of the story, of the story of Noah and the flood? Again, as kids, you hear it. And so you're like, oh yeah, this is a story for kids. But it's so much not.
It's not at all.
No, it's really a story of reality and the result of sin in our lives, not only in our hiding from God, but in the way that we treat each other. And this was pretty radical. But the remedy for the brokenness of mankind is extremely radical. It is very radical. And we're going to see that later on in the year where God becomes one of us.
And he takes the place of us and pays the price, as your listeners will learn later about covenants and what those are about. But this is really giving us, Father, chapters 1 through 11 really gives us a snapshot of of the plan, the problem with the plan, the remedy for the plan. And from here on out, we're going to be revisiting some of these themes.
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Chapter 6: What can we expect in the Early World period?
Amen. Thank you so much for that, because especially these first 11 chapters, we're going to get through them in five days. These first five days of the year are going to take us through this entire, just kind of the shortest time period. But the early world, which will be in so many ways, it's the first layer of a lens that's being shaped when it comes to how to look at the world.
And so, again, this layer of here's God's goodness, here's our grasping, and here's God not letting go of us, but continuing to pursue us even in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our turning away from him. So thank you, Jeff, once again, for joining us to introduce this early world to us.
In a couple days, after we get through the early world, Jeff's going to join us again for the patriarchs so we can walk through that and kind of get a good context of a little bit longer journey. Next month or so after the early world ends, we're going to start the patriarchs and get that next context for that next time period.
Once again, if you're interested in downloading the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also get updates by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. And finally, please, once again, subscribe to your podcast app and continue walking through the Bible with us.
As Jeff said, the power of the word of God has the power to change hearts, has the power to change lives, has the power to change even someone like you and like me. This is Father Mike Schmitz. God bless you. I cannot wait to be on this road with you.
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