Competing Jewish and Christian Claims to the Old Testament - Essay Example

?How do competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament create a problem for Biblical Theology? Is there a solution to this problem? Introduction Christians and Jews have always been at odds with each other, mostly because of their differing religious beliefs and interpretations of the Bible. Although Christianity and Judaism have similar historical foundations during the Second Temple era, the two religions have gone their separate ways in the first centuries of the Christian Era (Bloom, 2005). Christianity emphasizes on correct belief or orthodoxy which highlights the New Covenant of the Christian Triune God proven through the life of Jesus (Bloom, 2005). On the other hand, Judaism highlights the right conduct or orthropraxy which focuses on the Mosaic Covenant which the God of Israel established with the Israelites as seen in the Torah and the Talmud (Bloom, 2005). These are but a few of the differences between these two religions. More details shall be discussed in this paper, highlighting how the competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament create a problem for Biblical Theology. This essay will also discuss if there is a solution to this problem. Body Based on the teachings of the Bible, Christians would be able to gain individual salvation from their original sin by faithfully repenting and by spiritually accepting that Jesus Christ is God (Jacobs, 1973). On the other hand, the Jews individually as well as collectively take part in a continuous dialogue with the God of Israel by applying their traditions, rituals, as well as prayers (Jacobs, 1973). Christians also pay homage to a Triune God who was also birthed as a human. Judaism highlights the Oneness of God and does not agree with the Christian ideals of God having taken form as human (Goldsworthy, 2000). These competing claims to the Old Testament and other teachings in the Bible between the Jews and the Christians causes problems for Biblical Theology because the interpretations for the Bible can cast doubt on the authenticity of its teachings. Biblical theology mostly refers to a Christian approach where theologians assess the Bible based on an understanding of the progressive history of God where God unveils himself after the Fall and within the Old and New Testament (Hagner, 1993). Biblical theology also highlights the Old Testament in order to understand how each area or part fits the life of Jesus and his journey and growth as a man. In instances where there are competing claims between Judaism and Christianity, the biblical theology somehow becomes vague and confused (Mead, 2007). Normally, biblical theology seeks to establish a better understanding of the bible using the history leading up to the biblical references. The Christian theology for the bible seeks to understand how the writer knows God, the extent to which God’s plans are unveiled through the Messiah, how Israel has responded to God’s relationship up to this point, and how a given subject successively progressed within its redemption history (Mead, 2007). The competing claims of Judaism and Christianity makes the Christian and the Jew less committed to the teachings of the Bible, choosing instead to follow what they perceive as true (Cohn-Sherbok, 2001). The belief of God and His teachings is often based on faith and the basis for the most part of such faith is the account of Jesus’ life here on earth. Where the basis for such faith is put on shaky ground, the faith also becomes unstable (Cohn-Sherbok, 2001). The purpose of biblical theology is to place individual texts within a historical context. Its revelations are based on the history which progresses in the Bible. The support for such theology comes from Luke 24.27 as he declares that “and beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to the disciples what was said in the scriptures concerning himself”. This would indicate that the Old Testament spoke of the messiah, and Jesus was the messiah. In order to establish an improved understanding of the true meaning of the Bible, it is important to understand what the text is actually referring to. Absent such details, the actual meaning of the Bible and the text becomes inconsequential (Mead, 2007). Biblical theology can also be associated with systematic theology where focus is placed more on the historical development in the Bible; the systematic theology highlights more on thematic progression (Mead, 2007). There is usually one topic being discussed under the redemptive narrative. Biblical theology focuses on the diverse teachings of the Bible and systematic theology focuses on its unity. One of the first points of difference between these two religions is on self-identification (Mead, 2007). The purpose of Judaism is to establish what it believes to be the Covenant between God and the Jews. Their Torah firmly speaks of this covenant and establishes the terms for such covenant. The teachings of their Torah instruct them on how to live a holy life and how to obtain happiness, peace, and love as a means of seeking a higher level of kedushah (Mead, 2007). Judaism also emphasizes on maintaining a relationship with the individual Jew and God; in effect, three times a day prayer is important (Brawley, 2000). These teachings are different from Christian teachings. The purpose of Christianity is to secure a path for the people which is claimed to be their only path to salvation. This is based on the Book of Acts in the bible. These teachings also highlight the omnipotence and the significant power of God, who is the Son of man and the Son of God, and who is also God the son and God the Father (Brawley, 2000). The death of Christ in the cross was a sacrifice for the sins of man. The newer teachings of Christ mediate the New Testament and the sermon of Jesus at the Mount is considered a strong proclamation of ethics which is different from the teachings of Moses from Mount Sinai (Brawley, 2000). Differences in contextualization impact on how the bible teachings are viewed, mostly in terms of which teachings would bear more impact on the Christians’ and Jews’ lives. The Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible refers to the history of the Children of Israel, mostly in the context of their relationship with God (Hegg, 2003). Judaism has also been understood as a culture. Reconstructionist Rabbi Kaplan has indicated that Judaism is a largely developing religious civilization and this can be seen in the fact that a person does not need to do anything to be Jewish (Hegg, 2003). The foundation of being a Jew is having a Jewish mother or being converted to Judaism. In the current context, those born of Jew fathers and Gentile mothers and raised as Jews would also be considered Reconstructionist Jews. For religious Jews, their ethnic identity is based on their relationship with God; and this gives them a strong theological component (Hegg, 2003). Such relationship is based on the idea that Jews are considered a chosen people. Being chosen implies that they have been chosen to establish a covenant with God and that they would be bound to obey the duties of the covenant (Hegg, 2003). The Children of Israel are said to have chosen to establish such a covenant with God. They believe that it is therefore their duty to be a light to other people. Their salvation is also based on God’s endowment, one which is freely attributed. Jews believe that other people are not expected to follow the Law of Moses; and that the Seven Laws of Noah are considered binding to other nations (Hagner, 1993). In effect, an ethnic religion is expected of others. Judaism accepts that other individuals may have their own or different paths to God for as long as they follow the Seven Laws of Noah (Hagner, 1993). Ethnicity and culture seem to play a huge role in the Jewish identity, however, it is not the only way by which these Jews describe themselves. There may be secular Jews considering ethnicity and culture to define themselves. There are also religious Jews, who do not use such ethnicities to define themselves (Welker, 2007). These religious Jews define themselves as Jews within the context of their religion. Kaplan (1985) indicates Judaism as a civilization; and there may be those who do not agree to such claim. These oppositionists point out religious qualities as different or as exceeding civilization. The above Judaism qualities are based on claims which compete with the claims of Christianity (Kaplan, 1985). Judaism and Christianity both believe in One, True God who must be worshipped. Under these conditions, both religions are united in the interpretation of the first books of the Bible, especially on the presence of a supreme being (Kaplan, 1985). Jews consider One, True God as a single being, specifically, one who is constant and does not change. Where God is viewed as a single God, Christians view God as one God in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Goldberg, 2003). He is also considered the same throughout man’s history, hence they consider the bible as the best way by which God could be further understood (Goldberg, 2003). Christianity is evaluated based on its universality and its major departure from the Jewish identity (Goldberg, 2003). These Christians however believe and understand that Jesus stands for the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham and Israel with Israel being a blessing to many nations (Bartholomew and Botha, 2004). Christians understand that the promise was fulfilled by Jesus. Even as Christians understand that their religion is inclusive, the Jews consider Christianity as exclusive (Bartholomew and Botha, 2004). They point out that some Christian groups believe that non-Christians have an imperfect relationship with God and must therefore be excluded from the grace and salvation of heaven. For Christians, they believe that Jesus is the Saviour and, as such, the grace of God has now been granted to them; moreover, salvation cannot seem to be gained in any other way (Bartholomew and Botha, 2004). The main difference between the two religions has various implications. For one, during one’s conversion to Judaism, a convert must secure the Jewish principles in relation to faith and then reject all other religions (Wright, 2006). This is akin to an adoption, with the convert or ‘adoptee’ now becoming a child of Abraham and Sara. For various reasons, Judaism does not favour their members converting others (Wright, 2006). On the other hand, Christians actively seek new recruits and converts, mostly based on the declaration of faith. The Hebrew Bible is made up of three parts – the Torah, the Nevi’im, and the Ketuvim (Gruber, 2003). In general, they are known as the Tanakh. Based on Rabbinic Judaism, the Torah was unveiled by God to Moses (Gruber, 2003). Based on Rabbinic tradition, God unveiled two Torahs to Moses, one which was written and another given orally. The written Torah is said to be fixed (Gruber, 2003. The oral on the other hand, is considered a dynamic and living tradition which is inclusive of specific support to the written Torah and to various Jewish traditions (Gruber, 2003). The Oral Torah includes narratives from the Bible as well as stories from rabbis. For Christians, the written Torah is accepted as scripture; however, they do not interpret such scripture based on the Biblical Hebrew Text (Gruber, 2003). Christians would therefore read ‘virgin’ instead of ‘young woman,’ and they translate the phrase ‘they have pierced my hands and feet, no ‘like a lion, (they are at) my hands and feet (Gruber, 1998). The organization of the books is closer to the Septuagint. Some Christians do include some books from the Hebrew Bible in their canon , however these are not made part of the Septuagint (Gruber, 1998). Christians do not also support the Jewish Oral Torah which was considered unwritten during the time of Jesus. Christians support the notion that God has set forth a covenant with people through Jesus Christ. This is apparent from the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and other books in the New Testament (Stern, 1988). For various Christians such new covenant also has Sacred traditions and canon laws. Some protestants do not support the power of such traditions, instead they support the scripture as the final rule of practice. Christians consider the Biblical books from the New Testament to be the full canon; and for the Hebrews, the books of the Old Testament are their full canon (Stern, 1988). Judaism does not support the claims that Christian New Covenant fulfils or encompasses the written and oral torahs. Christianity does not also accept Mosaic Law having any authority over Christians; and Judaism does not accept that the New Testament has any impact or power over them. Jews believe that Christians can be vague about the Torah (Feher, 1998). These Christians seem to speak of the teachings of God being the absolute law, however, they also follow the commandments selectively. Many Jews argue that Christians use the commandments from the Old Testament to point out one perspective, however, they are ignoring other commandments (Feher, 1998). Christians defend such selectivity using the rulings of Jewish Christians in the Books of Acts during the Council of Jerusalem. Such perspective is apparent in modern Judaism where the gentiles would not need to convert to Judaism. In general, Judaism and Christianity support the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Feher, 1998). They reject the perspective of God being immanent. Both religions do not support the perspective that God is transcendent and separate from the world. They also reject atheism and polytheism (Feher, 1998). They both believe that God has both transcendent and immanent characteristics. How they resolve these issues is however different from each other. Christianity argues that God exists as the Hold Trinity. They teach that God became physical in the form of Jesus of Nazareth (Feher, 1998). Judaism on the other hand believes in God as a single figure with much disapproval for God as a trinity. Judaism also does not agree that Jesus or any other living human could be God or that God would have a physical form. Christian apologists claim that the fulfilment of the messianic prophecies on the mission, death and resurrection of Jesus indicates that the Bible is accurate and that Jesus was indeed the son of God (Gruber, 1991). However, based on Jewish experts, claims of Jesus existence are based on the misinterpretations and mistranslations of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus was not the accurate epitome of the Jewish Messiah (Gruber, 1991). They cite Isaiah where Christians cite how Jesus was born from a virgin but the Jews interpret the same text as indicative of the birth of Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah. The Jews also indicate that the word Almah in Isaiah comes from the Hebrew phrase ha-almah hara which means that the almah is pregnant (Gruber, 1991). As the present tense is applied, the Jews claim that the young woman fell pregnant, and therefore was not a virgin (Gruber, 1991). As such, the Isaiah verse would not be indicative of the future. The Bible is not written based on themes or topics. This observation has prompted theologians in the past to find a way to establish how the Bible itself establishes theology. This is known as Biblical theology. Biblical theology is theology which is true to the content of the Bible (Bloom, 2005). It is theology which understands the teaching of the Scripture including the systematic theology. Biblical theology is reflection which evaluates the historical assessment of the acts of God seen in the scripture. Beyond issues of content, biblical theology evaluates priorities in the scripture (Bloom, 2005). Based on such perspective, biblical theology sticks to what the Bible teaches, as well as how the Bible organizes theology. Among Christians, Biblical theology is based on the process of historical analysis. It is a theological analysis from the historical assessment of acts as indicated in the Bible. Rather than viewing the ways by which the Bible evaluates topics which may be of interest to people, biblical theologians want to understand how God manifested himself and his will for His people based on historical events as indicated in the Bible (Bloom, 2005). The differences in Biblical theology makes a significant difference to the Christian faith which is very much rooted in the events which have taken place in the past and have been included in the Bible. The competing claims to the Old Testament casts doubt as to the content of the Bible (Bloom, 2005). Christians often base most of their teachings in the Bible and where there are competing claims on the Bible coming from these two religions, the impact and the significance of written scripture would sometimes diminished. Despite the competing claims on the Old Testament between Jews and Christians, it is significant to note that the Sacred Scriptures have a significant role to play in the Christian Bible (Hegg, 2005). Without the Old Testament which has always been supported by the Jewish scripture, the New Testament would be incomprehensible. The competing claims for the Jews and the Christians can actually be reconciled in some form and in some way (Fielsend, 1993). Where points of common beliefs are reached, benefits become significant for both religions. The New Testament supports the divine power of the Jewish scriptures and when the New Testament mentions the Scriptures or that which is written, it is referring to the Jewish Scriptures (Feher, 1993). It supports the fact that these Scriptures must be fulfilled in some way or form as that they indicate the plan of God which must be met even with their barriers and the human resistance which oppose it. Where the aspects of the Bible are fulfilled for the Jews or the Christians, unity and accord may be reached, and without such accord, there is sometimes no progress for both religions. The discontinuity is often a source of disagreement between these two religions. The discontinuity is based on various levels of Biblical interpretation (Goldberg, 2003). Christianity is associated with the scripture and with the tradition, which is more or less the same with Judaism. Jewish techniques of exegesis are often applied in the New Testament. The canon of the Old Testament is based on the Jewish Scriptures and where there are significant contrasts and competing claims, the succeeding scriptures and teachings for both religions would likely be flawed and confusing (Goldberg, 2003). Biblical theology is founded on the interpretation of the Old Testament. It is also the process of interpreting the contents and the message of the Bible in meaningful and informative ways. The competing claims for the Jews and the Christians on the Old Testament represent issues on the message which would be gained from the Bible; the meaning of the Bible becomes less meaningful and less informative. The contrasting claims of the Jews and the Christians on the Old Testament affect the symbiosis of the two religions. In both the New and the Old Testament, the same God establishes a relationship with man who establishes a life of communion with Him-who is also the foundation of unity (Gruber, 1998). God continues to secure the needs of all his people, mostly those who recognize love and truth. God is also the Liberator of human beings even as they have fallen into a life of sin. God’s plan is based on the accounts of the Bible, which is considered historical for Christians (Gruber, 1998). It would not be possible to establish what the plan is through speculations alone. God establishes his plans through his teachings in the Bible and His guidance is considered significant for both Jews and Christians. With the contrasting and competing claims of the Jews and Christians, the teachings of God lose some significance. Moreover, the New Testament seems to stand on shaky ground as there is no continuity with the Old Testament (Gruber, 1998). In order to resolve the competing claims between these two religions, dialogue has been considered one of the solutions to this Jewish-Christian issue. This dialogue would be based on the acknowledgement of scripture for both religions (Welker, 2007). The Christians can declare that the New Testament has an attachment to the Old Testament and has its disagreement with the Jewish teachings. Such disparity should not be defined as an anti-Jewish sentiment because it is a disagreement based on faith, “the source of religious controversy between two human groups that take their point of departure from the same Old Testament faith basis, but are in disagreement on how to conceive the final development of that faith” (Chilton, et.al., 2012, p. 95). Such disagreement is not tantamount to mutual hostility. On the contrary, the attitude of respect and esteem for the Jewish people would be the only truly Christian value which can be applied in a situation which is part of the beneficial and favourable plans of God. It would be favourable for both sides to eliminate prejudice and misunderstanding in favour of an improved appreciation of the patrimony they share and of the strengthening of the links between them. The dialogue between the contrasts for these two religions must be launched primarily based on the premise that both religions come from the same roots (Chilton, et.al., 2012). Jewish scribes have written most of the Old Testament and in the time of Jesus, the Old Testament was the same for the Jews, the Christian-converted Jews, and the Roman Catholics. The primarily difference in the interpretation of the scriptures mostly come from the manifestation of the messiah (Chilton, et.al., 2012). Christians regard Jesus as the messiah, and among the Jews, their messiah has yet to come. Ironically, the Jews expect more for the messiah, in terms of worldly values. This was also the same during the time of Jesus. The Pharisees, the scribes, as well as the High Priests did not accept Jesus because he was considered an outsider (Chilton, et.al., 2012). He was too ordinary a man and they expected the messiah to be more imposing. The interpretation of the scriptures is different for the two religions. The interpretation of God being a Triune is the main difference between these two religions and this continues to be a controversial belief with the Trinity not being mentioned in the Western Bibles, but a concept which arose from the Gospel of John (Juster, 1987). The Jews have also eliminated the term trinity from their scriptures, however the word trinity can indeed be drawn from the scriptures. Based on the Aramaic language, they identify the word trinity from the Gospel of John and such trinity is associated with Jesus (Juster, 1987). The word Qnumeh which means trinity was borrowed from the Greeks, but they did not translate it as the trinity. This is where an issue with Western Christianity has been seen. Greek is not the original language of the scriptures or of the Old and New Testament (Juster, 1987). In order to reconcile Christianity and Judaism, the scriptures have to be understood and interpreted based on the Ancient Aramaic language. Using such language would help restore the prophesies of the bible and the faith in the messiah (Hegg, 2002). In the end, faith in the messiah would also help unite the two religions. Conclusion The competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament create a problem for Biblical theology mostly in terms of the confusion, doubt, and misinterpretation it can cause for its followers. These competing claims shake the foundations of both Christianity and Judaism, because biblical theology is based on the teachings of the scripture. Where there are issues in the interpretation and conceptualization of the scripture, both religions are unable to secure a more formal and fully supported basis for their faith and practices. Moreover, other writings which would follow would also be affected, including the New Testament for the Christians. These competing claims can however be resolved through dialogue and through an acceptance of the points of disparities. Agreeing to disagree on certain interpretations for the scripture seems to be the more prudent move in resolving these issues for these two religions because their basic differences are based on differences in faith which would not likely be easily resolved. The two religions establishing an agreement with each other in terms of a complete alignment of their beliefs would be unlikely, however, it is possible to use the right tools in interpretation in order to establish conceptualizations which can help both religions coexist with each other while also serving the spiritual needs of their followers. References Bartholomew, C. and Botha, E., 2004. Out of Egypt: Biblical theology and biblical interpretation. New York: Paternoster Press. Bloom, H., 2005. Jesus and Yahweh: The Names divine. New York: Riverhead. Brawley, A., 2000. Grafted In: Why Christians are thinking about a Jewish Biblical Theology. Journal of Bible and Culture, 30(4), pp. 120-128. Chilton, B., Le Donne, A., and Neusner, J., 2012. Soundings in the religion of Jesus: Perspectives and methods in Jewish and Christian scholarship. London: Fortress Press. Cohn-Sherbok, D., 2001. Messianic Judaism. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Feher, S., 1998. Passing over Easter: Constructing the boundaries of Messianic Judaism. London: AltaMira Press. Fieldsend, J., 1993. Messianic Jews – Challenging church and synagogue. London: Monarch Publications/MARC/Olive Press. Goldberg, L., 2003. How Jewish is Christianity? Two views on the Messianic movement. London Routledge. Gruber, D., 1991. The church and the Jews: The biblical relationship. Missouri: General Council of the Assemblies of God, Intercultural Ministries. Gruber, D., 1998. Torah and the New Covenant—An introduction. New York: Elijah Publishing. Hegg, T., 2002. The letter writer: Paul’s background and torah perspective, first fruits of Zion. New York: Routledge. Hagner, D., 1993. Paul and Judaism, the Jewish Matrix of Early Christianity: Issues in the current debate. Bulletin for Biblical Research 3, pp. 111-130 Hegg, T., 2003. Historic Christianity & apostolic Judaism: The core difference. TorahResource.com [online]. http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/ApostolicJudaism.pdf [Accessed 04 December 2012]. Jacobs, L., 1973. A Jewish theology. London: Behrman House Juster, D., 1987. Growing to maturity: a messianic Jewish guide, union of Messianic congregations. London: Routledge. Kaplan, A., 1985. Meditation and Kabbalah: Containing Relevant Texts from The Greater Hekhalot, Textbook of the Merkava School, the Works of Abraham Abulafia, Joseph Gikatalia's Gates of Light, The Gates of Holiness, Gate of the Holy Spirit, Textbook of the Lurianic School, Hasidic Classics. New York: Weiser Books. Mead, J., 2007. Biblical theology: Issues, methods, and themes. New York: Presbyterian Publishing Corp. Stern, D., 1988. Messianic Jewish Manifesto, Messianic Jewish Resources International. London Routledge. Wright, C., 2006. The mission of God: Unlocking the bible's grand narrative. London: InterVarsity Press. Welker, C., 2007. Should Christians be Torah Observant?, New York: Netzari Press.   Read More