Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - An important issue for relations between Jews and Christians is without a doubt the understanding of the correct connection between the sacred texts of the Israelites or Jews, and the texts contained in the Catholic Biblical Canon. We know in fact that while the Jews call their Sacred Scripture, the Tanàk, acronym of Torà, Neviìm and Ketuvìm, in other words the Laws, the Prophets and Historic Writings, Christians use the word Bible to indicate all the old and the new testament writings together.
Putting aside the complex matter of the quantity of Jewish texts which form the Tanàk and which as we know, are less numerous than those included in the Old Testament writings contained in the Christian Bible, my intention is to focus on the connection which exists between the Old and the New Testament.
First of all we should say that the both Testaments concern the unity of biblical revelation and document the same divine plan. Every event narrated in the Bible should be considered in the totality of its history from creation to the end of time, from Genesis to Revelation. Biblical revelation concerns the whole human race, and believers in a special way.
When we speak of the "calling of Israel", just to give an example, the meaning of God's choice is understood in the light of final fulfilment (Rom 9-11), just as the calling of Jesus Christ becomes clear in reference to the announcement and the promise (Heb 4,1-11). Even though these events concern only one people, in this case the people of Israel, in God's vision they are destined to assume exemplary and universal importance. I mean they are events which were experienced by the Jews but which actually concern all humanity, all centuries and all nations.
If the divine plan is one, then we understand the real connection between the Old and the New Testament. The Church, early and apostolic (1Cor 10,11; Heb 10,1) and patristic and medieval, contemplated this fruitful connection using the category of “typology”, highlighting the fundamental value of the Old Testament but declining it in the Christian vision. In the Old Testament, the New Testament is presented and announced, in a way that makes Christ the “key” to the Scriptures: “That rock was Christ” (1Cor 10,4). Both in the Church Fathers and in the liturgy we find considerable evidence of this particular structuring, even if in no few cases, and not only among Jews, the latter has been noted with unease. The Marcionist heresy, for example, was harshly condemned by the early Church as a dualist doctrine.
However does this special Christian manner of reading –contextualising the whole in the light of the event of Christ, who died and is Risen - coincide with the Jewish manner? Certainly not. Nevertheless there is nothing to stop Christians from using with discernment the ancient Scriptures of Israel in order to understand their own. Indeed the ancient Scriptures reveal to Christians the fathomless riches of the old testament, its inexhaustible contents and the mystery which pervades it. A mystery which the New Testament simply takes up and renders even clearer (Mk 19, 29-31). Actually the New Testament demands to be read and explained in the light of the ancient Scriptures, as it was in early Christian catechesis (1Cor 5,6-8; 10, 1-11).
Just as a typological reading of the Old Testament points to the New Testament: “God will be all in all ” (1Cor 15,28), so too the Church, already realised in Christ, awaits her divine perfection as the body of Christ (Eph 4, 12-13). This explains why the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt lose none of their importance or value in God's plan for salvation, because they are at the same time intermediate milestones (NA, 4).
Eschatology also benefits from a typological reading of the Old Testament: both Jews and Christians await the Messiah's coming or second coming. Although we may still be divided over the person of the Messiah, this point certainly constitutes a moment of convergence between the two Abrahamitic faiths. Jews and Christians base their faith on the same promise made to Abraham (Gen 12,1-3; Heb 6,13-18).
Auditors of the same God who spoke, listeners to the same Word, it is good for Jews and Christians to render unanimous testimony to the same memory and to a common hope in the One who is the Lord of history. Together with responsibility they must prepare the world for the Messiah's coming, promoting social justice, respect for the fundamental rights of the human person, universal reconciliation. Not simply dialogue then between the two faiths, but active collaboration in view of the common good, fruit of proper understanding of the fecund and inexhaustible connection between the Old and the New Testament. (Michele Loconsole) (Agenzia Fides 24/10/2008)
