Father Mike Schmitz

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.

I can't believe that.

But I have to believe it 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 wanna 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 gonna 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.

But before we do that, can you offer us some context for when it comes to not just the idea but also the implementation of these 12 time periods?

Whether that's a brief description of how you came up with that or if it's just kind of like how you found that to be incredibly useful.

And is that the distinction between the early world and the patriarchs is that chapters 1 through 11 are that Hebrew poetry and then it switches in chapter 12 through 50 where it's like, no, now we're talking a different kind of writing, telling the expansion of the story, but maybe, I don't want to say more rooted in some characters or figures that...

we maybe are rooted more in, this is maybe prehistory, 1 through 11, and then history, history, 12 through 50.

Is that kind of accurate way of saying it?

It doesn't go so well.

That's a great way to describe it.

It kind of doesn't turn out how you want it to.