Categoría Emergente –Transversalidad

“Ignorance of the distinction between the Law and Gospel is one of the principle sources of all the abuses which corrupt and still corrupt Christianity.”

Theodore Beza For some patristic and early Christian scholars, to say that the early Church Fathers were ‘anti-

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semitic’ is to imply an anachronistic use of the term. However, there can be no doubt that when the dynamics of power and politics shifted as Christianity became a majority and the official religion of the Roman Empire, these sentiments were used continually to buttress and justify anti-Jewish measures. See Robert L. Wilken, John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric and Reality in the Late Fourth Century, (University of California, Berkeley Press, 1983), 124–126

Kessler, Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations, 61

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Robert L. Wilken, The First Thousand Years, 122

By the Middle Ages, the perceived disjunction between what was labelled as ‘law’ and ‘grace’ was a well established precept, so deeply buried in the sands of Christian thought it is almost impossible to sift out. An interesting distinction is to be noted here. While the dichotomy was emphasised between being ‘under the law’ and ‘under grace’ and Jews were confined to the former and Christians liberated under the latter, a space was made in Christian thought for the ‘moral’ laws of the Torah. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE), divided the Torah into what he saw as the ceremonial, judicial and moral codes. The ‘moral law’ is that part of the Law of Moses which predates Sinai and is part of the ‘Natural Law’, and therefore of eternal significance for Christians. The ceremonial and judicial precepts of the Law of Moses, 275

according to Aquinas, were temporary, and with the coming of Jesus these aspects of the Torah ceased to be binding. For a Christian to observe the ceremonial or judicial aspects of the Torah would be a mortal sin, as it would be like declaring Messiah has not yet come. And yet, Aquinas concedes, the judicial precepts of the Torah do contain elements of universal justice, again reflected in Natural Law. Therefore a ruler who was to enforce aspects of the judicial precepts are found in the Law would not be committing mortal sin. 276

This highlights another dimension in the narrative that underwrites the assumed dichotomy between law and grace as it developed historically - the notion that the Torah can be dissected up and portioned out, conveniently allowing for more favourable or accessible aspects to be followed, but the more misunderstood parts to

See Jonathan Jacobs, ‘Judaism and Natural Law’, (Colgate University, 2009), 932-933: https://

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onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00429.x. Retrieved December 15, 2018 Summa Theologica, I-II, q. 104, a. 3. See also Thomas Aquinas, The Power of God. Trans. Richard J.

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be abandoned. (In one sense echoes of Marcionism can be detected in this trend - 277

Marcion advocated cutting the entire OT, in addition to recasting the NT through retaining most of the Gospel of Luke (bar the first two chapters), and ten out of the fourteen letters attributed to the Apostle Paul. ). 278

There is a heavy theological discourse here which space will not accommodate, pertaining to the fact that there are certain parts of the Torah that are only applicable in the Land of Israel and not outside of it, or applicable for just the descendants of Aaron, or the Tribe of Levi, or men, or women. So it would appear that Torah itself acknowledges ‘distinctions’. The Book of Hebrews in the NT picks up this very 279

theme in its wrestle with the ritual aspects of the Torah changing as they understood it in light of the Messiah. However, although made up of different parts and with different emphases, in Jewish sacred memory the Torah is always a whole that is intended for the community, and to dissect it in a way that defies its essential nature and function creates inevitable hermeneutical difficulties. One of the challenges with

Kessler notes that in the Christian interpretations of the bible, a dual ‘continuity/discontinuity’

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hermeneutic developed, whereby there existed a simultaneous continuity and discontinuity with the Old Testament. On the one hand, (unlike Marcion), the God of both Testaments was one and the same. On the other, everything within the Old Testament pointed to the New. See Kessler, Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations, 49

Geza Vermes, Christian Beginnings, 194-195. Ironically, Marcion advocated a dislocation with the

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Hebrew Scriptures, in part because he agreed with the majority of Jews that the messianic prophecies as contained within the OT had not yet been fulfilled. See Saperstein, Moments of Crisis, 66

Indeed, Martin Luther picks up in this very theme, stating that the “They cannot observe Moses’

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Law anywhere but in Jerusalem, this they now and are forced to admit”. Drawing inspiration from John Chrysostom, Luther mockingly maintained that if the Jewish people could retune from exile and take possession of Jerusalem, “they will soon find us coming on their heels…and we will also become Jews”. For Luther, this was never a possibility for it were, God would be ‘a liar…and the devil truth’. Saperstein notes that in addition to John Chrysostom, Luther echoes Augustine’s commitment to the idea that the Jewish exile is an eternal punishment and therefor an ‘incontrovertible testimony to the truth of Christian faith’. See Marc Saperstein, Moments of Crisis, 34. See also Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, (47:161), https://archive.org/details/TheJewsAndTheirLies1543En1948/page/n13. Retrieved December 15, 2018

the historical assumption that scripture is pitted against itself in terms of ‘grace’ (which is Christian by default) and ‘law’ (which is Jewish), is that supersessionism finds ample ground on which to flourish. Chapter four of this thesis examines supersessionism and the possibility that the Torah can offer a key in and of itself to navigating this theological phenomenon, but here it can be definitively concluded that the Adversus Judaeous literature and the hermeneutic of degrading Jews and Jewish texts have historically sustained supersessionist dynamics throughout the Christian-Jewish relationship. 280

IV. THE CHANGING TIDE IN JEWISH CHRISTIAN