The books of the Apocrypha are referred to as the “hidden book.” Two books from the Apocrypha are the books Tobit and 1 Maccabees. Briefly, 1 Maccabees (which was written anonymously) recounts the history of the all the way to the Jewish revolt or the Maccabean Revolution. The revolution was due to the overly powerful Seleucid king, Antiochus IV. The Jewish people had many grievances against the king. One of their grievances was that he offered a sacrifice to the Greek God Zeus on the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. Also, he forbids the people to read the Law of Moses and to perform their traditional Jewish Sacrifices.
The Jewish people were tired of Antiochus IV tactics. The first man to revolt was a man named Matthias and then many followed after him. Matthias died so his son Judah took over the revolt. The revolt was the Maccabean Revolt. Judah ended up winning the revolt and taking control of Jerusalem. The first order of business for Judah was fixing all of the wrong doings that Antiochus IV had done especially cleansing the Temple. After the Temple was cleansed it was rededicated and this rededication service was call Hanukah and it was decided that Hanukah would be celebrated every year.
1 Maccabees relates to my project in the essence of the fact that the need for reform was taken into account. The people realized that things were out of hand and improvements needed to done, however, no one wanted to take the initiative. It was not until one man decided to take the initiative that everyone joined the bandwagon. Many people realize that students have poor money management skills and that training needs to be done to improve their skills. However, no one was taking the initiative to request a class to help students. It took the work of two students, Ashley Reeves and I to jump start the idea and based on the results of the petition, many students are joining the bandwagon.
Another book of the Apocrypha is the Tobit. The Tobit is book that is self-entitled about a man named Tobit. Tobit has a great live with a wonderful family, but Tobit buries the dead which is a violation of the Assyrian king’s order. Tragedy is about to enter Tobit’s life when one night while he was digging graves he falls asleep. While he is asleep, birds defecate in eyes which cause him to go blind. Tobit’s blindness makes him want to contemplate suicide. While Tobit is contemplating suicide, there is also a young woman in the land of Media who is also contemplating suicide. The young woman’s name is Sarah and the reason why she is contemplating suicide is because she has been married seven times and on each of her wedding nights her husband is tragically killed by the demon Asmodeus and she is still a virgin.
God hears the prayers of Tobit and Sarah and sends the angel of healing Raphael. The story continues with Tobit postponing his suicide so that his son Tobias can go into Media to collect money that a man owes him. Throughout the journey, Tobias is accompanied by Raphael who takes on a human form. While on their journey, a fish jumps out of the water and tries to eat Tobias. Tobias and Raphael kill the fish and preserve its heart, liver, and gall bladder.
When Tobias and Raphael enter the town of Media, they stay with Sarah. Soon, Sarah and Tobias fall in love and marry. On their wedding night Raphael advice Tobias to burn the heart and liver to ward of the demon and it works and the wedding night is a success. Sarah and Tobias return home and Tobias rub the gall bladder in his father’s eyes and his sight is returned.
The book of Tobit relates to my project in many ways. One way is due to the fact that due to debt many consequences followed. If Tobias had not gone into Media to collect the debt than Sarah would have killed herself because she was a virgin and Tobit would have killed him because he was blind. Even though debt in this scenario provided positive consequences, in reality debt can only bring negative consequences. Also, in Tobit bad things happened for a reason, however nothing is too bad to be overcome. Bad credit is bad, however it can be overcome. If there is a way to become educated so that the same mistakes do not be made, then the individual should take advantage of this opportunity.
With all aspects of the Bible, the thought of an afterlife or the thought of heaven is always in the back of the minds of the readers. However, what exactly is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of God (depending on which Gospel it is mentioned in) is a phrase that occurs over 100 times in the New Testament. Much of the account about the Kingdom of God occurs in the Synoptic Gospels. According to the Bible, a person can reach the Kingdom of God by, “understanding, acceptance like a child, spiritual rebirth, and doing the will of God” (Kingdom of God). The kingdom of God is a place that will only be filled with the most righteous people. However, even though there are many future references to the Kingdom of God, there are also some present references. Mark 1: 15 talks about the Kingdom of God being “at hand” and states: “And saying, the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent you, and believe the gospel.”
Someone may ask, if the Kingdom of God is being displayed here at Xavier University. I would like to give a definitive yes, however I cannot honestly do so. Let it be understood that there are many students here who, like myself, are here to earn an education and fulfill God’s commission. This does not hold true for all students. There are some students here who only party and conduct themselves in a manner that is not appropriate for the Kingdom of God. Throughout the campus overall there is discrepancy in representation. In one part of campus, there are students having a circle prayer and then in another part of campus, there are students swearing and dancing vulgar.
In order to enter the Kingdom of God, a person must be a good steward. In order for a person to be a good steward, he or she must be a good steward over everything, even their money. So when an individual is in great debt, he or she is not being good stewards of their money. The Kingdom of God relates to my project in the essence that with both my project and the Kingdom of God only good stewardship is rewarded and bad stewardship is punished.
The article “Jesus: How Little We Know” was very surprising. Having gone to church my whole entire life, I thought I knew everything about Jesus. However, I was very wrong. There is still much for me to learn. I did not know about all of the different ways that different denominations and religions relate Jesus. I also did not think about how counter-cultural Jesus was. First of all he was a Trinitarian according to Judaism. That is odd in a culture where each person is their own person and people who have multiple personalities break a social folkway. Also, Jesus was born of a virgin. That is very counter-cultural because all births besides his are due to sexual intercourse. Finally, Jesus died and was resurrected. This is also counter-cultural in the sense that when people die, they usually do not regain life.
In my opinion, my project is very counter-cultural. It is today’s culture that money should be spent now and the consequences worried about later. Today’s society approves living a lavish lifestyle that is beyond normal means. Also, society approves credit card use and if a person does not have a credit card, then something is socially wrong with that individual. However, my project deals greatly with money management and not living beyond your means. My project preaches against credit card use and preaches that money management is more important than lifestyle.

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