| A 200-page study, by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible," published in Italian on May 24, 2001 and translated into English six months later by the Vatican Press, continues to enrich and enliven the discussion of this critical issue on both sides of the Atlantic. The document, which began as a study in 1997, revisits and reverses many of the stereotypical attitudes of the Church towards the Jewish people and their Scriptures that have prevented efforts to create mutual respect and understanding in the past. The text says that "in the past, errors were committed by unilaterally insisting on the discontinuity" that exists between the Hebrew Scriptures (largely what Christians call the Old Testament) and the Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments). The only truly Christian attitude toward the Jews is one of "appreciation and love."
The Biblical Commission, composed of 23 leading biblical scholars, is responsible to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose prefect is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In the Preface of the study, Cardinal Ratzinger writes that Christians and Jews are fundamentally united inasmuch as both accept the same Divine Revelation, with the difference that Christians believe that such Revelation continued in Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christ cannot be fully understood if the Divine Revelation present in the Jewish Scripture is excluded. As such, Christians honor a legitimate Jewish reading and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The first part of the text affirms that the New Testament recognizes the authority of the Old Testament as Divine Revelation, and cannot be understood without being intimately related to it and with the Jewish community and tradition that transmitted it. The second part of the document, examines how the writings of the New Testament understand and incorporate the rich and varied content of the Hebrew Scriptures-especially in reference to Jesus Christ. The third section outlines the diverse attitudes on the Jews reflected in the New Testament, something which also occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures. The final section draws some general conclusions and makes recommendations for pastoral orientations.
The document does attempt to seriously and honestly engage Jewish perspectives of the Hebrew Bible. In dealing with the historically controversial issue of the Messiah, it reads:
Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain. It can become for us Christians a powerful stimulant to keep alive the eschatological dimension of our faith. Like them, we too live in expectation. The difference is that for us the One who is to come will have the traits of the Jesus who has already come and is already present and active among us. (n.21)
The text concludes by saying that “without the Old Testament the New Testament would be an indecipherable book, a plant deprived of its roots and destined to dry out” (n. 84). “An attitude of respect, esteem and love for the Jewish people is the only truly Christian attitude in a situation which is mysteriously part of the beneficent and positive plan of God. Dialogue is possible, since Jews and Christians share a rich common patrimony that unites them. It is greatly to be desired that prejudice and misunderstanding be gradually eliminated on both sides, in favor of a better understanding of the patrimony they share and to strengthen the links that bind them.” (n. 87)
At a time when violence between religions seems to occupy everyone's consciousness, this statement from the Vatican is a strong sign of hope-primarily because it will demand that Christians re-visit their relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people's Scriptures.
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