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Friday, 15 January 2016

The Fifth Principle

Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity's Sacred Obligation,
Ed. Mary C. Boys, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002, page xv-xvi

The fifth principle given by the CSG is: The Bible both connects and separates Jews and Christians.

Some Jews and Christians today, in the process of studying the Bible together, are discovering new ways of reading that provide a deeper appreciation of both traditions. While the two communities draw from the same biblical texts of ancient Israel, they have developed different traditions of interpretation. Christians view these texts through the lens of the New Testament, while Jews understand these scriptures through the traditions of rabbinic commentary.

Rreferring to the first part of the Christian Bible as the "Olt Testament" can wrongly suggest that these texts are obsolete. Alternative expressions - "Hebrew Bible", "First Testament", or "Shared Testament" - although also problematic - may better express the church's renewed appreciation of the ongoing power of these scriptures for both Jews and Christians.

All of which is fine and dandy, except that there is no politically correct way to refer to the Greek Scriptures. That name has problems, inasmuch as it can refer to the whole of both portions of the Christian Bible in translation (i.e. LXX+NT). Continuing to refer to them as the "New Testament" so begs the naming of the first part "old" that trying to call it something different is very difficult. And, of course, many churches simply don't or won't consider any name change.

Posted By Jonathan, 9:01am Comment Comments: