The biblical commission, the Jews, and scriptures - Pontifical Biblical Commission

The PBC is quite aware of the levels of interpretation, and has indicated this by the repeated references to "continuity"/"conformity" and "discontinuity"/"non-conformity" ([subsection] 6-8, 21, 22, 64-65, 84-86). Readers will be helped by keeping in mind a fundamental distinction, which is suggested by the document itself:

   The basic theological presupposition is that God's salvific plan which
   culminates in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3-14) is a unity, but that it is realised
   progressively over the course of time. Both the unity and the gradual
   revelation are important; likewise, continuity in certain points and
   discontinuity in others" [[section] 21].

In other words, there is a difference between the divine plan and the literary witness to it as found in the Bible. The divine plan has a unity in the revelation that took place in Christ. But there is no "unity" to biblical writings that were scattered over centuries; they give witness to several different concerns dictated by historical events, always open to further interpretation. The perspective is Christian, for it reads the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, but it is not necessarily christological, that is, it does not refer directly to Christ. The "fundamental themes" are all examples of Christian perspective. Thus "covenant" is interpreted not only as the union of the "people of God" with YHWH, but as union in and through Christ with his Father. The evidence for God as liberator and savior is traced from the Exodus to the resurrection of Jesus.

These are legitimate interpretations from a Christian perspective, but certainly not from a Jewish point of view. The PBC recognizes this when it maintains that

   Christians can and ought to admit that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a
   possible one, in continuity with the Jewish Scriptures from the Second
   Temple period, a reading analogous to the Christian reading which developed
   in parallel fashion. Both readings are bound up with the vision of their
   respective faiths, of which the readings are the result and expression
   [[section] 22].

The "analogy" between Jewish and Christian interpretation is to be taken broadly. Strict Jewish interpretation puts the written law or Torah together with the unwritten law, later reduced to writing in the Mishna and Talmud. Both are Mosaic. The Christian counterpart would be the New Testament interpretation and its elaboration in Christian tradition.

As indicated above, the PBC stresses continuity between the Testaments, but also refers to discontinuity. The thrust of continuity is exemplified in the famous beginning of the Letter to the Hebrews: "In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days he spoke to us in a son ..." (Heb 1:1-2). Only at a few points does it mention discontinuity or "non-conformity," as in the case of levitical priesthood ([section] 8) and various laws such as restrictions concerning food, ritual cleanness, etc. ([section] 65). It allows that these are still "of great importance" for Judaism, "but it is also clear that the radical replacement in the New Testament was already adumbrated in the Old Testament and so constitute a potentially legitimate reading" ([section] 64). The legitimacy is not in question, but the adumbration, or foreshadowing, is. This term is a favorite metaphor of Christian tradition, but it is open to arbitrary contacts between the Testaments (tithing, anyone?). Literary expressions and religious institutions are not shadows. They have a meaning and importance all their own that deserve skilled and balanced interpretation. This terminology is unhappy. The text is conceived as casting a shadow forward to a meaning that is arrived at retrospectively ([section] 21), looking backward.