View this email in your browser
Reflecting the Mind of the
Vatican since 1850
‘The Book of Revolutions’: The battles of priests, prophets and kings that birthed the Torah
SHARE THIS ARTICLE     
For centuries, Jews were seen by Christians as little more than blind adherents of an Old Testament they could not readily understand, a text that had no independent meaning after Christ had come. According to the polemical expression of Saint Paul, a veil covered their minds, preventing them from comprehending: “their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.” (2 Cor 3:14).

This text has been depicted in art and sculpture as twin sisters, one the proud, empowered Ekklesia (Church), with her penetrating gaze, and the other Synagoga (Synagogue), forlorn, cast-down with her eyes veiled. The Church exercised a monopoly on interpreting the Old Testament by means of an allegorical exegesis that found Christ implicitly present everywhere in the Old, and made explicit in the New.

Saint Augustine imaginatively compared the Jews to the Roman slave who walked in front of the son of his master, carrying his books on the way to school. The slave could not read the books but ensured that the books were made available. In his commentary on Psalm 56, he writes, “They have become our satchel-bearers, like those servants who carry the books of their masters. The servants become tired carrying them; the masters make progress by reading them.”
Follow us     
© Union of Catholic Asian News 2022
Click here to Unsubscribe