HEBREW SCRIPTURES

An alternative designation for that portion of the Bible traditionally called by Christians the "Old Testament," preferred by people sensitive to Christian-Jewish relations.

The term "Old Testament" is not recognized by the Jewish tradition, and as it is used in the Christian (in conjunction with "New Testament") it has often led the unwary to the unfortunate conclusion that the New Testament has replaced or superseded the Old. The Old is then thought to have lost all permanent value as a source of divine revelation. This conclusion, rising from the juxtaposition of the two terms, contradicts Christian tradition (e.g., Dei Verbum 3).

In Judaism, the Bible is normally called Tanakh, a vocalized Hebrew acronym that describes its contents: Torah (Pentateuch), Nebi‘im (Prophets), and Ketubim (Writings). Tanakh, as a Christian alternative to Old Testament, presents a difficulty because of its unfamiliarity. It is also doubtful whether Jewish usage would include those portions that Catholics accept as canonical from the septuagint (e.g., Judith, Tobit, Sirach 1–2, Maccabees), but which were not included in the Masoretic canon accepted by rabbinic tradition in the late 2d century. The term "Jewish Scriptures," which is preferred by some Catholic journals, presents similar difficulties.

"Hebrew Scriptures," on the other hand, presents the lesser difficulty that not all of the books included in the Catholic canon (e.g., Maccabees) can be shown to have been written originally in the Hebrew language. The term "Hebrew," in the title, therefore needs to be understood as an ethnic or "peoplehood" designation rather than as a linguistic one. In this sense, "Hebrew" would be taken to refer to "the Jewish people in the biblical period."

The terminological dilemma discussed here can be said to be illustrative of Catholic attitudes toward Jews and Judaism encouraged by the Second Vatican Council. While recognizing the above difficulties and even bringing into question the traditional understanding of typology as a means of expressing the essential relationship between the two testaments, the "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catachesis," issued by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (June 24, 1985), opted to "continue to use the expression 'Old Testament' because it is traditional (cf. already 2 Cor. 3:14) but also because 'Old' does not mean 'out-of-date' or 'outworn"' (Section II). It should be noted, moreover, that the 1984 Scripture and Christology promulgated by the Pontifical Biblical Commission speaks of the "books of the Prior Testament … [that] remain the privileged document of those experiences of Israel" (2.1.4.1). The document of the Biblical Commission consistently uses the term "prior testament" instead of "Old Testament."

While the phrase "old covenant" finds precedent in the Epistle to the Hebrews 7:23, other terms for what the apostolic writers accepted as "God's Word" (4:12) can also be found in the New Testament. For example, 2 Tm 3:16 and Heb 11:15 simply use "Scripture." Hebrews, however, does not discuss Judaism as such (whether biblical or rabbinic), but merely the Temple sacrifice, which Christ has replaced (Heb. 8:13) and itself uses the less polemical "first covenant" (Heb. 8:7) in introducing the citation from Jeremiah 31:31–34, from which the phrase "new covenant," and hence "New Testament," ultimately derives.

The New Testament thus presents a variety of designations for the Hebrew Scriptures. The issue is to choose one for common usage in the Church that both connotes the continuity between the testaments (covenants) from the Christian point of view and, at the same time, evinces respect for the integrity of Judaism and the Hebrew Bible.

Bibliography: l. boadt et al., Biblical Studies: Meeting Ground of Jews and Christians (New York 1980).

[e. j. fisher]