Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations of books of the Bible
- Table of Psalm numbering
- Introduction
- Part I Texts and Versions
- Part II Format and Transmission
- Part III The Bible Interpreted
- 26 Byzantine Orthodox exegesis
- 27 The patristic legacy to c. 1000
- 28 The early schools, c. 900–1100
- 29 The Bible in medieval universities
- 30 Scripture and reform
- 31 Jewish biblical exegesis from its beginnings to the twelfth century
- 32 The Bible in Jewish–Christian dialogue
- 33 The Bible in Muslim–Christian encounters
- Part IV The Bible in Use
- Part V The Bible Transformed
- Bibliography
- Index of biblical manuscripts
- Index of scriptural sources
- General index
- References
32 - The Bible in Jewish–Christian dialogue
from Part III - The Bible Interpreted
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations of books of the Bible
- Table of Psalm numbering
- Introduction
- Part I Texts and Versions
- Part II Format and Transmission
- Part III The Bible Interpreted
- 26 Byzantine Orthodox exegesis
- 27 The patristic legacy to c. 1000
- 28 The early schools, c. 900–1100
- 29 The Bible in medieval universities
- 30 Scripture and reform
- 31 Jewish biblical exegesis from its beginnings to the twelfth century
- 32 The Bible in Jewish–Christian dialogue
- 33 The Bible in Muslim–Christian encounters
- Part IV The Bible in Use
- Part V The Bible Transformed
- Bibliography
- Index of biblical manuscripts
- Index of scriptural sources
- General index
- References
Summary
The meaning of the Hebrew Bible has always been one of the most crucial areas of contention between Jews and Christians. From the very beginnings of the encounter between Ecclesia and Synagoga the Hebrew Bible provided protagonists from both camps with seemingly limitless ammunition to debate the differences between them. For Jews the Torah (Pentateuch), Neviʾim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings) encoded the covenant between God and Israel; for Christians the Hebrew Bible constituted the Old Testament, which presaged the new covenant between God and new Israel. This meant that whatever interest Christians had in the letter or historical meaning of the Hebrew Bible, they also had to read it as if it were about Jesus Christ. Within the Jewish–Christian dialogue this christology could take on many different kinds of allegorical forms. As we shall see below, it could even be presented in a literal guise. Because Jews did not read the Bible christologically Christians commonly assumed that they were capable solely of reading the Bible ad litteram. Jewish readings were compared unfavourably with Christian spiritual readings which Christians claimed uncovered the hidden truths of the texts from under the veil of the letter. For their part Jews claimed that Christians took unwarranted liberties with the words of God.
For Christians the role of Jews vis-à-vis the Old Testament was definitively worked out by Augustine of Hippo (d. 430). Augustine taught that Jews served Christians by carrying for them the books of the Old Testament. The very fact that Jews preserved the books of the Bible even though they themselves did not understand what those books said about the life, teaching and passion of Jesus Christ seemed to exemplify the salvific promise held within those books. It was, in other words, the role of Jews in Christian society passively to embody the Christian supersession of Judaism. Their dispersion marked the punishment of the Jews for rejecting Christ. At the end of time the Pauline prophecy (Romans 11) would be fulfilled and Jews would convert to Christianity. At the core of Augustine's ‘witness theory’ was the paradox that Jews could not or, even worse, did not want to understand their own holy texts. How that could be reconciled with the ability of Jews to read Hebrew remained a question generations of Christian scholars would struggle to answer.
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- The New Cambridge History of the Bible , pp. 616 - 637Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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