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Thursday, October 5, 2000 The Southern Cross, Page 9 The Bible Jesus knew and cited By Eugene Fisher Catholic News Service V V hich is the first of all the commandments,” Jesus was asked in Mark 12. He replied: “The first is this: ‘Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as your self.’” One’s understanding of Jesus’ law of love is immensely enriched by going back to the Hebrew Scriptures and looking up the context of the two biblical passages Jesus cites. —Deuteronomy 6:5: “Hear, O Is rael, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength”, and —Leviticus 19:18: (You shall love your neighbor as yourself). The first passage, Deuteronomy 6:5, follows immediately upon the giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5. The passage is meant by the biblical author to do just what Jesus does with it: distill the inner spirit and meaning of the Ten Commandments. So important is this verse that pious Jews to this day place it in the mezuzahs fixed to their doorways and in the little boxes they strap to their foreheads whenever they pray. The second passage, from Leviticus, is absolutely breathtak ing in its challenge to contemporary believers, no less than it was to Jesus’ original, piously Jewish audi ence or, for that matter, to the origi nal readers of Leviticus. For, Leviticus 19 is nothing less than the basic structure of a just and loving society. The passage is, like Deuteronomy 6, a central teaching in Jewish tradition. Rabbis such as the great Akiba (second century C.E.) cited it as “the greatest principle in the law.” Our modern society, great as it is in so many ways, is only approaching the radical sense of social justice and love called for in Leviticus. Jewish reflection on biblical texts can be startling to Christians, who do not approach the Bible quite the same way. One of the longest de bates in rabbinic literature from the second century to the present con cerns how to understand the patri arch Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. Here is this supposedly loving son who makes it big in Egypt and yet allows his father, the patriarch Jacob who believes Joseph is dead, to grieve for years and years. What kind of a son is so callous? How can Joseph have so violated the com Why value the Old Testament so greatly? By Father Lawrence E. Mick Catholic News Service bishop named Marcion was excommunicated in the second cen tury. He then formed his own church. Marcion taught that there were two gods. He distinguished between the stern creator God of the Old Testa ment and the merciful God of the New Testament. Considering the creator God the in ferior one, Marcion rejected the Old Testament as Scripture. The church’s reaction to this heresy led to the official listing of the books of the Bible. And the church clearly ac cepted the writings of the Jewish Scrip tures — our Old Testament. Of course, the church long had used these Scriptures in her worship. In the beginning of the church’s life, in fact, Jesus’ followers had no other Scriptures to use. The New Testa ment writings did not exist until some decades after Christ’s resurrection. It should not surprise us that the early church used the Jewish Scrip tures, because Jesus himself used them. Jesus was a Jew. He held his faith’s Scriptures in high esteem. So his followers naturally continued to value them. And when the New Testa ment writings began to appear, they were added to the Jewish Scriptures as sources for the readings during the church’s worship. The New Testament writings can not be fully understood except in light of the Old Testament. The writers of the New Testament were familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, and this familiarity shaped the way they wrote about Jesus and Christianity. The Gospel according to Matthew makes this clear, for example, by repeatedly quoting passages from the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Fully understanding Jesus and his he God who called Abraham is also the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and our God too.” message requires knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures that shaped his own life and faith. The book of the Old Testa ment used most frequently in Christian worship is the Book of Psalms. This was the prayer book of the Jews, and it natu rally became the prayer book of Christians too. The Psalms have been used during the Eucharist — the Mass — throughout the centuries. We are most familiar today with the psalm after the first reading at Mass, called the responsorial psalm. Many of The New Testament quotes or alludes to Old Testament passages more than 350 times. St. Jerome, the fourth-century translator of the Bible into Latin, once said that “ignorance of the Old Testament is ignorance of Christ.” It shouldn*t surprise us that the early church used the Jewish Scriptures, because Jesus himself used them. the hymns and contemporary songs we use also are drawn from the texts of the psalms. In addition to the role played by the Psalms in the Eucharist and the other sacraments, psalms form a major part of the church’s official daily CNS photo from Cleo Photography prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours. The Psalms are used so extensively because they express in rich poetry almost every human emotion and ex perience. They give us words with which to address God no matter what our situation or need. All of the Old Testament has value for our prayer and our knowledge of God. The God who called Abraham is also the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and our God too. The church, like the head of the household in the Gospel (Matthew 13:52), regularly brings forth from her storeroom both the new and the old. (Father Mick is a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a free-lance writer.) All contents copyright©2000 by CNS mandment to respect one’s parents? What a schmuck! Different rabbis over the centu ries offered different solutions to the dilemma of what to do with Joseph. Some are ingenious, some merely disingenuous. But I know of no Christian commentator who even asked this intriguing question, much less attempted an answer! For we Christians tend to be too awed by the inspired nature of the biblical text to allow its ironic spiri tual and moral challenges to touch our hearts and move us in this sort of way. Jews are the only people in the world besides Christians who take the Bible as God’s word. They can, therefore, witness to its validity and enter into dialogue with us about its sacred meaning. (Fisher is the U.S. bishops’ offi cial for Catholic-Jewish Relations.) FAITH INTHE MARKETPLACE What key message of the Old Testament prophets or of a psalmist is greatly needed by the world today? “The church needs to get back to the basics of the Old Testament. We need to care for the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the old and the troubled. This is the key message of Deuteronomy.” — Father William Schneider, Trenton, N.J. “The message of peace is needed today, as is the message to serve the poor. We don’t necessarily strive to be a people of peace; we need to do this better. And in helping the poor, we show our faith in action.” — JoAnn Jones, Louisville, Ky. “The book of Amos ... speaks of charity and of living with God’s word. This is an impor tant message for the world today.” — Tami Hoffman, Ankeny, Iowa “The biggest message for me from the Old Testament prophets is to reform our lives in a radical way. We tend to get caught up in the trappings of today’s world, but God’s values are very different than society’s values.” — Cathy Heying, Minneapolis, Minn. An upcoming edition asks: Tell of an aspect of the Mass that is, in a sense, educational for you — that clarifies or highlights something essential. If you would like to respond for possible publication, please write: Faith Alive! 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100.