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Annual Spring Breakfast 2004

The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible

The Annual Spring Breakfast of the CCCJ-Alberta Region, was held on May 5, 2004, at the Calgary Jewish Centre. The event began with prayer sung in Hebrew by Rebecca Levant.

The speaker, Dr. Michael Duggan, Professor of Theology at St. Mary’s University College in Calgary, was introduced by Anna Tremblay, director of the Ecumenical Center for the Roman Catholic diocese of Calgary. The subject under discussion was the 2001 Vatican document, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible.

Professor Duggan began by noting that there are sixteen levels or types of Vatican documents. This document is of a type about which discussion and debate is requested. It is thought that Catholics need to know of these matters. The paper has been issued by The Pontifical Biblical Commission, a group which is composed of biblical scholars from around the world who are charged with preparing statements on important biblical matters. Dr. Duggan agrees: the matter addressed in this paper is extremely important, and not just for Catholics but for all Christians.

An example of the issues addressed: while adopting Jewish scripture as part of the Christian Bible, Christians have accepted a significant reordering of Jewish books. In doing so, the perspective, direction and interpretation of the whole corpus (called “Old Testament” by Christians) has been altered. But, says Duggan, “God has put what God intends into the texts” as originally formulated. To understand them on their own terms, a concerted effort now needs to be made “to read Hebrew texts for their Hebrew meanings”. This is one of the principles strongly advocated in the paper and one that Christians need to understand and affirm.

Pope John Paul II, throughout his pontificate has emphasized the importance of developing an understanding between Catholics and Jews. In 1980, for example, during a visit to the main synagogue in Rome he declared, “the church of Christ discovers its ‘links’ with Judaism by ‘pondering its own mystery’ (cf. Nostra Aetate). The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us, but, in a certain manner, it is ‘intrinsic’ to our religion. We have therefore a relationship with it which we do not have with any other religion. You are our favored brothers and in a certain sense, one can say our ‘elder’ brothers.”

The document contends that Christians interpret scripture ‘backwards’, from the viewpoint of the life and death of Jesus. Jewish scripture was not originally written as a prefiguration of the coming of a messiah, but as the unfolding development of God’s relationship with a people. To read the texts on their own terms requires recognizing that Jews interpret them very well without any reference to Christ. For example, the “suffering servant” passages of Isaiah stand within Jewish scripture, understood and interpreted by Jews without any reference to New Testament events and having significance in relation to events current at the time. Another text, Isaiah 7:14, speaks of “a young woman” conceiving and bearing a son who shall be called Immanuel. When this verse is quoted in Matthew 1:23 the word, ‘virgin’, is used in place of “young woman”. The altered connotations of this change, for Christians, distort how Isaiah is read. Isaiah was not predicting the birth of Jesus centuries later but was comforting his people in a period of crisis, assuring them that God was present with them and would deliver them in the time it takes a child to be conceived and borne. The document states (section 84), “without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be incomprehensible, a plant deprived of its roots and destined to dry up and wither.”

Turning to criticism, Dr. Duggan stated his opinion that the document contains inconsistencies, weaknesses and problems. As an inconsistency, he claimed that “the paper acknowledges diversity in interpretations but does not practice” respect for diverse views. A weakness is that there is not enough attention paid to the diversity of groups / views within the Judaism of the 1st century CE., even though the New Testament reflects this diversity. Also the document attempts to defend the unfair negative image of the Pharisees contained in the New Testament; Pharisees were teachers who kept Judaism alive in the chaotic conditions of the second temple period, and different Pharisees held different views. Nor does the document take enough cognizance of internal arguments in the New Testament. The considerable differences between the various Gospels and between the Gospels and the writings of Paul and others in the New Testament indicate a variety of viewpoints among the communities in the early church. Dr. Duggan gave the example of the different idea of ‘law’ as expressed in Paul, who seems to promote its demise, and in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

A more serious problem in the Vatican document is the tendency to justify the anti-Judaism in the New Testament by referring to negative passages in the Hebrew Bible regarding the ‘sins’ of Israel. The prophets, for example, were talking to their own people from within their own community. Compilers of the Hebrew scriptures considered these passages important enough to incorporate them into the text as internal correctives, reminders to the people to be self-critical. The New Testament does not contain such internal correctives or “reads them out under a theory of the indisputable authority of scripture”, says Duggan. The historical background and context of New Testament writings is one area that needs further study.

Overall, according to Dr. Duggan, the publication of this document is a positive development because it promotes openness in the Catholic Church to the variety of nuances in the common biblical heritage of Jews and Christians.

Rabbi Moshe Saks’ also acknowledged the positive impact of the Vatican document in its positive attitude towards Jewish interpretations of scripture. In Judaism, a variety of interpretations of any passage is accepted, for example, pshat, the literal interpretation, and drash, the homiletic interpretation. God inspired the scriptures, but they contain the words of human beings and therefore are open to various interpretations.

Rev. Clinton Mooney moderated the session, which continued with questions from some of the approximately ninety people in attendance. Prof. Doug Shantz, Chair of Christian Thought at the University of Calgary, thanked the speaker.

A plaque was presented in honor of the immediate past president, Irving Jacobson. It was accepted by his widow, Charlotte, and after the breakfast, was hung in the Calgary Jewish Seniors’ Center where Irv had volunteered his time teaching English to new immigrants.

And lively discussions after the breakfast meeting: