"Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matt 5:17-19)
Articles examining how the Torah and the Gospel illuminate one another within the unity of God’s revelation. This section also considers the vocation of Jewish disciples of Jesus — Messianic Jews, Hebrew‑Catholics, and Catholic Jews — and their relationship to the mitzvot within the Catholic Church.
It is sometimes suggested, particularly by self-appointed "experts" in Jewish-Christian relations, that the Catholic Church has definitively resolved all questions concerning the validity of the Mosaic covenant and the place of Torah observance for Jews within the Church. Such confidence is unwarranted. While the Church has made decisive progress in rejecting anti-Judaism and articulating the permanence of God's election of Israel, she has not issued definitive rulings on several crucial questions relating specifically to Jewish believers in Christ.
This article discusses a perennial theological question within Catholic theology: how can a Catholic speak meaningfully of continuity between the Law of Israel and the New Covenant in Christ without falling into Judaizing on the one hand, or supersessionist rupture on the other?
The Hebrew Catholic movement stands at a delicate but providential threshold. Emerging historically from the Hebrew Christian and missionary paradigms of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it has gradually been forced to confront a deeper theological question: whether Jewish identity in Christ is merely instrumental to evangelisation, or whether it possesses intrinsic spiritual and ecclesial value within the mystery of the Church itself.
The Great Mystery (1863) by Rev. C. W. H. Pauli (Rabbi Tzvi Nassi) is a fascinating exploration of the Trinity through Jewish tradition. Written in autobiographical style, it reveals how the God of Israel manifests Himself as Three in One, drawing on the Hebrew Bible, the Targums, and the Zohar. A timeless work of Jewish‑Christian dialogue, now available for free download.
Do the sacramental rites of the Old Testament continue to have value after Calvary? This controversial question has been answered in very different ways in the history of the Church. In recent decades, there has been a widespread change of perspective due to many factors including the Holocaust, the Second Vatican Council's Nostra Aetate, the rejection of more radical forms of supersessionism, the spread of messianic Jewish congregations, and the practice of participation in the Passover seder in parishes.
How are Catholic preachers supposed to reconcile the legitimation of military violence in Deuteronomy with the Gospel’s celebration of childlike meekness? If ignoring this dilemma is the option of cowards... contrasting the peaceful spirit of the New Testament with the violent teachings of the Old is theologically perilous.
In remaining true to the sources of Jewish tradition, Jews are commanded to avoid the madness that seizes society at various times and in many forms, while yet retaining a moral composure and psychological equilibrium sufficient to exercise that combination of discipline and charity that is the hallmark of Judaism.
Among the sexual perversions proscribed as criminal offenses in the moral code of the Torah are homosexual relations between males (Lev. 18:22). Talmudic law extends the prohibition also to lesbianism. Rabbinic sources advance various reasons for the strict ban on homosexuality, which is regarded as a universal law included among “the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah.”
A Temple is a seat of Divine Presence. In Judaism, there are two Temples, one for the dimension of time, the Sabbath, and one for the dimension of space, the Temple in Jerusalem. Christianity adds a third, the Son of G-d incarnate in the nature of man.
It seems to me that a Catholic cannot help but be a crass supersessionist unless he recognizes the value that keeping the Law of Moses can have for the Jew who would serve G-d as He revealed Himself through His Incarnate Son.
The history of the relationship between Israel and Christendom is drenched with blood and tears. It is a history of mistrust and hostility, but also - thank God - a history marked again and again by attempts at forgiveness, understanding and mutual acceptance... Can Christian faith, left in its inner power and dignity, not only tolerate Judaism but accept it in its historic mission? Or can it not? Can there be true reconciliation without abandoning the faith, or is reconciliation tied to such abandonment?
