Vatican: Jewish wait for Messiah not in vain

Christian Century, Feb 13, 2002

In an authoritative document that took Jewish scholars by surprise, the Vatican has affirmed the "extreme importance" of the Old Testament and stated that Jews do not wait "in vain" for the Messiah. The 200-page study, The Jewish People and Their Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible, was published in Italian and French last year without fanfare.

"The Jewish messianic wait is not in vain. It can become for us Christians a strong stimulus to maintain alive the eschatological dimension of our faith," said the document from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which is attached to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. "We, like them, live in expectation. The difference is in the fact that for us, he who will come will have the traits of that Jesus who has already come and is already present and active among us."

The report has been in bookstores since November, but it remained unnoticed until the Italian news agency ANSA reported its contents in mid-January. "There was no intention to hide it," Ciro Benedettine of the Vatican Press Office said. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who said the report is now part of official church doctrine, told the New York Times on January 17 that the document "says you cannot just say all the Jews are wrong and we are right." Explaining further, the papal spokesman said, "It means it would be wrong for a Catholic to wait for the Messiah, but not for a Jew."

The result of four years of work, the document follows the controversial Dominus Iesus text issued by Ratzinger on September 5, 2000, which said followers of non-Christian religions are in a "gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the [Catholic] Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation" through Jesus.

But the biblical commission said Christians were mistaken in viewing the Old Testament solely as a "prophetic preparation" for the coming of Jesus. The Jewish scriptures, it said, "occupy a place of extreme importance in the Christian Bible.... Without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be an indecipherable book, a plant deprived of its roots and destined to dry up."

Though the theological distinctions were somewhat obscure, some Jewish scholars praised the intent and tone of the document. Interfaith dialogue veteran James Rubin said, "The commission's efforts represent another step in the long, often-tortuous process undertaken by the Vatican to come to terms theologically with Jews and Judaism." Joseph Levi, chief rabbi of Florence, said the document helps to restore the image of the two religions as "two separate but converging roads." --RNS