When I was little, I had a new dress each year. Then last year’s dress became the old dress. One of my first theological questions (probably about the age of five) was ‘ what happens to the old testament when there is a new New Testament and the New Testament becomes the old Testament.
How do we read ‘The Old Testament’ as Christians without interpreting it through Christian eyes and seeing its only value in pointing to Jesus? How do we read the New Testament without denigrating the Jews?
As the Introduction to the booklet “Rightly Explaining the Word of Truth” says:
For many years it has been recognised by scholars - theologians, historians and philosophers - that there are passages in the New Testament which refer to Judaism and the Jews in terms of animosity. For almost two millennia those passages of the New Testament have caused misunderstandings of Judaism and provoked odium of Jews amongst Christian communities. More particularly those passages have been exploited throughout the ages and continue to be exploited by countless persons for political and social ends, and in some quarters for religious purposes. Hate and odium have led to and created antisemitism expressed by suspicion, mistrust, contempt, prejudice, false charges, discrimination of Jews by Christians, and by persecution, brutalities, forced conversions on pain of death, pogroms, murders and massacres of Jews as exemplified by the Crusades, the York Tower massacre, the Spanish inquisition, the Chmielnicki massacres, subsequent and countless pogroms in Eastern Europe. Those events were all overshadowed by the ultimate of all horrors in the history of mankind the Holocaust perpetrated by pagan Nazis with the full and active participation of, among others, German, Austrian, French, Polish and Hungarian Christians.
A committee was established by the Victorian Council of Christians and Jews to provide guidelines for sensitive use of scripture. The committee included some Uniting Church Scholars .Members of the Special Committee were the Reverend Dr John Wright, Dr John Foster, Sister Shirley Sedawiends, Father Peter Cross, the Reverend Robert Gribben, the Reverend Dr Dorothy Lee, Rabbi Dr J S Levi AM, Rabbi R Lubofsky, Rabbi D Schiff, Mr Mark Baker, the Reverend Professor Robert Anderson AM [Chairman] and Father Nigel Wright.
Topics covered are: The Problem, Identifying the Texts, Interpreting the Texts, Trial and Death of Jesus, The "New"and The "old", The Pharisees, The Expression "The Jews" in the Fourth Gospel, and Jesus' Judaism and the Torah.
Rightly Explaining the Word of Truth, published in 1995 by the Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria) was launched in WA by the Rector of Christ Church, Claremont, David Wood. It provides guidelines for Christian clergy and teachers in their use of the New Testament, with particular emphasis on the representation of Jews and Judaism Following this copies were provided to all ministers and candidates for the ministry in Western Australia, and it was promoted for reading by everyone. It is a very accessible document and a good reminder of how to respect both our own and another tradition.
Now this booklet is available on the web and can be downloaded from the Council of Christians and Jews website.