This blog is primarily aimed at those who preach and teach, also for those who prepare for Sunday by pondering the upcoming readings

Even those who trained for ministry quite recently are likely not to have been asked to consider the potential anti-Judaism lurking in New Testament texts because Christian-Jewish relations are absent from the syllabus of most seminaries.

It would also be useful for study groups such as those who meet to study the forthcoming Sunday’s readings and for Christians and Jews studying texts together; indeed this book originated in a mixed group of the Council of Christians and Jews in Bristol, UK, led by me over three years, spanning the lectionary cycle. I am most grateful to the whole group, but especially to the Rev’d Dr. Paul Spilsbury, who offered many insights from a conservative perspective and challenged my occasionally sloppy thinking.

Barbara Brown Taylor, one of the most famous and gifted preachers in the US, wrote: ‘a man in my congregation married a Jewish woman who sometimes came with him to church. When she did, I heard the slurs in familiar passages. I tasted the razor blades in beloved hymns. Before long, she had changed my sermons even when she was not there. If what I said did not sound like good news to her, I decided, then it was not the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ quoted in Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism – M. Salmon (Fortress 2006) p. 158

‘In an essay on Mel Gibson’s movie, Rabbi Michael Lerner observed that “if Christians have not confronted anti-Judaism as effectively as they have tackled other ‘isms,’ then that is because doing so requires them to question the historical truth of their own scriptures.”’ quoted in Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism – M. Salmon (Fortress 2006) p. 132

“Repentance of the misdeeds of the past is not by itself sufficient to enable us to come to terms with our different histories. Knowledge instead of ignorance of our common origins is the essential preliminary to greater mutual understanding.” Christian origins – C. Rowland (SPCK 1985) p. 5

I have been involved with interfaith work for forty years and am an Anglican lay Reader (aka licensed lay minister). I am keen that preachers and teachers avoid unintentional anti-Judaism.

If you do not use the lectionary but want to know how to find a comment on a particular passage, this table could act as a guide:  http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/When_Will_It_Be_Read.htm

חַג שָׂמֵחַ

I Thessalonians 4:13-18 Proper 27A

The problem of the non-appearance of the Parousia manifests itself in a slightly different form in Paul’s early letters to the Thessalonians. In both letters eschatological issues are dominant concerns. In the first it is apparent that there has been a question about the death of Christians before the Parousia (4.13ff.). It would appear that the Thessalonians thought that those who died before the arrival of Christ would have been at a disadvantage and would not participate in the life of the age to come. Such a belief is consistent with Jewish eschatology where, generally speaking, only those who were alive when the Messiah came would be fortunate enough to participate in the life of the messianic kingdom (Syr. Bar 29; cf. Syr. Bar. 50.⁹ Paul deals with this problem by asserting that those who have died will in fact precede those left alive, in being united with the returning Christ (4.16). The advice given concerning the arrival of the kingdom in 5ff. suggests that the community was in a state of expectancy and was perplexed about its non-arrival. Christian origins – C. Rowland (SPCK 1985) pp. 287-8

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1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Maundy Thursday ABC

The Qumran community, whose views are preserved in the Dead Sea  Scrolls, believed, like the early Christians, that they had entered into a new covenant with God (e.g., CD 6.19; cf. Mark 14.24; Heb. 8.7ff.).Christian Origins – C. Rowland (SPCK 1985) ^{p. 26}

Entry into the community was seen as the participation in a new covenant 1 QS I, 5, 6; CD 15f.). It was the conviction of the community of the Scrolls that they were the faithful remnant of Israel. God had revealed his wisdom to the Teacher of Righteousness and only he knew what was the true will of God. All those who entered the sect had to act in accordance with all that had been revealed of it to the sons of Zadok (I QS 5).

 The member of the sect saw himself as a child of light, specially chosen by I God (I QS 3). That is not to suggest that there was any unthinking feeling of superiority. Throughout the hymns there is a profound understanding of dependence on God’s mercy, which has many affinities with the Pauline I understanding of righteousness by faith alone (I QH 19.7; 1 QS 4³⁰

In their calendrical observances the sectaries conflicted with the majority practices in Judaism by their observance of a solar calendar. Inevitably this led to a significant disjunction between their own observance of festivals and sabbaths and that of other Jews.³¹ Ritual washing was practised in the community (CD ii). There also seems to have been some kind o 1 purificatory rite in connection with entry into the community (I QS 3, 5; cf. CD 3). There was a hostile attitude to those who managed the Temple in Jerusalem, because it was believed that it had been run by wicked priests. The sectaries were certainly not opposed to the Temple but wished to see the establishment of proper cultic worship, according to the appropriate /calendar (CD 6, u). In place of the regular cultic participation we find /same kind of spiritualizing of cultic language as is to be seen in the N (Rom. 12.1; 1 Cor. 3.16); for example, 1 QS 8f.³² As in other Jewish groups the meal seems to have played a most important part, and a close link seems to have existed between the common meal regularly celebrated and the ‘messianic banquet (I QSa). Christian origins – C. Rowland (SPCK 1985) P. 74

Ephesians 1:1-14 Proper 10/Ordinary 15B

he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world … a plan for the fullness of time… destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things

Some Christians think that Jesus came as sort of rescue act after the world got out of God’s control.  That he’d chosen the Jews, lost patience with them so came to choose somebody else. This reading shows that Gentiles were chosen, as were the Jews, in God’s plans from the very outset – indeed BEFORE time.

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Mark 5 21-43 Proper 8/Ordinary 13B

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’

Cf. Lev. 12:1—8 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel, saying: If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be ceremonially unclean for seven days; as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days. When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt-offering, and a pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-offering. He shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement on her behalf; then she shall be clean from her flow of blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, male or female. If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtle-doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt-offering and the other for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf, and she shall be clean.

Lev 15:19—30 When a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. Whoever touches anything upon which she sits shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening; whether it is the bed or anything upon which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. If any man lies with her, and her impurity falls on him, he shall be unclean for seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.  If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, for all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness; as in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies during all the days of her discharge shall be treated as the bed of her impurity; and everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her impurity. Whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. If she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count seven days, and after that she shall be clean. On the eighth day she shall take two turtle-doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting. The priest shall offer one for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt-offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf before the Lord for her unclean discharge.

m. Niddab 7:4; Josephus, Antiquities 3.261 Such deprecation fails to respect practical wisdom and cultural difference. Blood carries many communicable diseases; quarantine embodied compassion for persons who might be affected but are not yet, and relieved infected persons from the burden of knowing they infected others. (Leviticus 13 speaks of diseases that can be contracted.) Furthermore, many Jews believed that blood contained the power of life (Lev. 17:10—16 If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people. ¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. ¹²Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: No person among you shall eat blood, nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood. ¹³And anyone of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside among them, who hunts down an animal or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. 14 For the life of every creature—its blood is its life; therefore I have said to the people of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off. ¹⁵All persons, citizens or aliens, who eat what dies of itself or what has been torn by wild animals, shall wash their clothes, and bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening; then they shall be clean. ¹⁶But if they do not wash themselves or bathe their body, they shall bear their guilt.

  Christians frequently imply that ancient Judaism was an inferior religion because, in its view, whereas the woman had a medical problem, the bleeding made her religiously unclean and the community isolated her. Are there good reasons for these rules?

Outside the body, blood was a force no longer directed toward the purpose God intended. Uncontrolled blood had the capacity to threaten order. Hence, the community developed rites to contain such uncontrolled force. Cf. precautions around blood-spillage of people with HIV

Note that although her faith seems superstitious, Jesus rewards such faith from an ‘ordinary person’.

‘…if the issue were related to ritual impurity, it does not follow that all avoided her for fear of becoming unclean. In fact, according to the narrative, no one in the crowd seemed aware they maybe contacting impurity from this woman. .Contacting ritual impurity was simply part of life for Jews in the ancient world… E. P. Sanders observes that ‘All the Jews, including Pharisees, were impure more or less all the time….“all the holy scriptures render the hands unclean. The rabbis certainly did not refrain from contact with the Scriptures for fear of getting their hands dirty. … Christian interpreters do not need of ritual purity laws to avoid Using them superiority. We do need to remember that these laws, which seem to us strange and archaic, were not uncommon in the ancient world. It is anachronistic to suppose that Jesus dismissed them as irrelevant. Undoubtedly there was diversity with respect to attention to observance, some were more meticulous than others, and certainly there differences in Diaspora customs.’ Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism – M. Salmon (Fortress 2006)  pp. 100-101

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Ephesians 4:17-25 Proper 12/Ordinary 18B

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.

Is the New Testament only critical of Jews?

But Jesus called them to Himself, and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. “It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, (Matt 20.25)

For He will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, (Lk 18.32)

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles (1 Cor 5.1)

No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God (1 Cor 10.20)

We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles;  (Gal 2.15)

This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, (Eph 4.7)

that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God (1 Thess 4.4)

For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking

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Ephesians 2:11-18 Proper 11/Ordinary 16B

ton nomon twn entolwn en dogmasin “the law with its commandments and regulations” – [nullifying] the law of commandments in (the sphere of its) ordinances.

The covenantal law links blessing with the maintenance of right-standing (righteousness) before God and the reality is that this cannot be achieved by an effort of the will. The problem faced by Paul was that many Jewish believers (“judaizers”, members of “the circumcision party”) believed that not only was law-obedience possible and that the sacrificial system could cover their occasional failure, but that it could advance their righteousness (make holy, sanctify). This heresy is known as nomism and was rife in the New Testament church.

the covenantal law, a culturally distinct law that divided Jew from Gentile (e.g. food regulations, cultic observance, circumcision, …. as well as the moral law), no longer plays a part in a person’s standing before the living God and therefore, no longer promotes a barrier of division between Jew and Gentile.

eJna kainon anqrwpon “one new man” – Paul calls the family of believers “one new man.” Christ creates this entity “in himself”. Faith in Christ produces identification with Christ and thus in Christ a believer becomes a child of God, a member of the covenant community, a true Israelite (grafted on to the ‘old’ Israel), a member of the church and of Christ’s body.

eirhnhn (h) “peace” not, here, peace with God but peace between Jewish belivers and Gentile believers, such that in Christ both find “peace” with each other, for the two are now one in Christ.

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Mark 4:35—41 Proper 7/Ordinary 12B

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

What resonances can you find in the Old Testament?

Job 38:8—11 the wind and sea obey God: “And who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment! and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it / and fastened the bar of its door, And [I] said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,! and here shall your proud waves be stilled!” (NAB).

“They mounted up to heaven; they sank to the depths; their hearts melted away in their plight” (Ps 107:26, Lectionary).
“He [God] hushed the storm to a gentle breeze and the billows of the sea were stilled” (Ps 107:29)

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Mark 4:26-34 Proper 6/ordinary 11 B

He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

What is similar, in Jesus’s stories, to earlier Jewish literature?

2 Esdras 4:28-29, 35-39 For the evil about which^* you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come. ²⁹If therefore that which has been sown is not reaped, and if the place where the evil has been sown does not pass away, the field where the good has been sown will not come……Did not the souls of the righteous in their chambers ask about these matters, saying, “How long are we to remain here?^* And when will the harvest of our reward come?” ³⁶And the archangel Jeremiel answered and said, “When the number of those like yourselves is completed;^* for he has weighed the age in the balance, ³⁷and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.” ’ 38 Then I answered and said, ‘But, O sovereign Lord, all of us also are full of ungodliness. ³⁹It is perhaps on account of us that the time of threshing is delayed for the righteous—on account of the sins of those who inhabit the earth.’

2 Esdras 8:36-62 For in this, O Lord, your righteousness and goodness will be declared, when you are merciful to those who have no store of good works.’37 He answered me and said, ‘Some things you have spoken rightly, and it will turn out according to your words. ³⁸For indeed I will not concern myself about the fashioning of those who have sinned, or about their death, their judgement, or their destruction; ³⁹but I will rejoice over the creation of the righteous, over their pilgrimage also, and their salvation, and their receiving their reward. ⁴⁰As I have spoken, therefore, so it shall be.41 ‘For just as the farmer sows many seeds in the ground and plants a multitude of seedlings, and yet not all that have been sown will come up^* in due season, and not all that were planted will take root; so also those who have been sown in the world will not all be saved.’42 I answered and said, ‘If I have found favour in your sight, let me speak. ⁴³If the farmer’s seed does not come up, because it has not received your rain in due season, or if it has been ruined by too much rain, it perishes.^{* 44}But people, who have been formed by your hands and are called your own image because they are made like you, and for whose sake you have formed all things—have you also made them like the farmer’s seed? ⁴⁵Surely not, O Lord^* above! But spare your people and have mercy on your inheritance, for you have mercy on your own creation.’46 He answered me and said, ‘Things that are present are for those who live now, and things that are future are for those who will live hereafter. ⁴⁷For you come far short of being able to love my creation more than I love it. But you have often compared yourself^* to the unrighteous. Never do so! ⁴⁸But even in this respect you will be praiseworthy before the Most High, ⁴⁹because you have humbled yourself, as is becoming for you, and have not considered yourself to be among the righteous. You will receive the greatest glory, ⁵⁰for many miseries will affect those who inhabit the world in the last times, because they have walked in great pride. ⁵¹But think of your own case, and inquire concerning the glory of those who are like yourself, ⁵²because it is for you that paradise is opened, the tree of life is planted, the age to come is prepared, plenty is provided, a city is built, rest is appointed,^* goodness is established, and wisdom perfected beforehand. ⁵³The root of evil^* is sealed up from you, illness is banished from you, and death^* is hidden; Hades has fled and corruption has been forgotten;^{* 54}sorrows have passed away, and in the end the treasure of immortality is made manifest. ⁵⁵Therefore do not ask any more questions about the great number of those who perish. ⁵⁶For when they had opportunity to choose, they despised the Most High, and were contemptuous of his law, and abandoned his ways. ⁵⁷Moreover, they have even trampled on his righteous ones, ⁵⁸and said in their hearts that there is no God—though they knew well that they must die. ⁵⁹For just as the things that I have predicted await^* you, so the thirst and torment that are prepared await them. For the Most High did not intend that anyone should be destroyed; ⁶⁰but those who were created have themselves defiled the name of him who made them, and have been ungrateful to him who prepared life for them now. ⁶¹Therefore my judgement is now drawing near; ⁶²I have not shown this to all people, but only to you and a few like you.’

2 Esdras 9:31-33 For I sow my law in you, and it shall bring forth fruit in you, and you shall be glorified through it for ever.” ³²But though our ancestors received the law, they did not keep it and did not observe the^* statutes; yet the fruit of the law did not perish—for it could not, because it was yours. ³³Yet those who received it perished, because they did not keep what had been sown in them.

Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Ezekiel 31:6 All the birds of the air made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth to their young; and in its shade all great nations lived.

1 Enoch 90:2-3 but the eagles led all the birds; and they began to devour those sheep, and to pick out their eyes and to devour their flesh. And the sheep cried out because their flesh was being devoured by the birds,

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Sermon for Proper 5 Evening Prayer Romans 9

“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”— words fro our second lesson Romans 9:15.

 

 

That’s a bit strong.

 

Some commentators say that the word “hate” means “love less:”—”Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I loved less.”

 

What was wrong with Esau?

 

Hebrews 12:16, See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

 

I was tempted to use the text from the 1060s TV programme Beyond the Fringe:

 

Esau was an hairy man: Jacob was a smooth man.

 

The name Esau means hairy.

 

He was the stronger twin, a bearded, outdoors kind of a man.

 

a “man’s man.”

 

a loner, whose lifestyle demanded neither cooperation nor communication with others.

 

 

 

Jacob is more like today’s new man.

 

smooth skinned, he led a more settled life

 

his work demanded relatedness and cooperation with other people.

 

 

 

At one level, their story is about sibling rivalry

 

At another, it has often been interpreted as a prophecy of the future relationship of Christians to Jews

 

The belief that Christians have “superseded” Israel as the chosen of God

 

that we have replaced the Jews as the apple of God’s eye,

 

that led, in the extreme, to the Holocaust.

 

supersessionism has a Jewish precedent.

 

such as the dispossession of Ishmael by Isaac

 

 

 

Imagine Adolf Hitler writing a history of the Jews.

 

It could hardly be taken seriously

 

How could a Jew-hater and a Jew-killer be trusted to deal truthfully with the historical material?

 

After his conversion, Paul was viewed as a traitor by his fellow Jews

 

Reaction to Paul was immediate and intense in Damascus after Paul’s conversion:

 

 

 

Paul wrote Romans, between the years 55-58,

 

the Christian gospel wasn’t receiving a positive response from the majority of Jews

 

the church hadn’t anticipated this.

 

It caused great anguish to Paul and other Christians.

 

Paul didn’t write as a “Christian” passing judgment on “Judaism,”

 

as much as he wrote as a Jew trying, like the prophets of old, to make theological sense of the dynamics of disobedience and restoration among Abraham’s descendants.

 

 

There is no smugness or sense of “good riddance” in his words as he considers the issue in these chapters.

 

The driving question is “What’s God doing?”

 

not “What’s wrong with these unbelievers?”

 

Though that is what many Roman Christians thought.

 

Bishop Tom Wright write, “In Rome, Paul foresees the danger of the (largely gentile) church so relishing its status as the true people of God that it will write off ethnic Jews entirely as being not only second-class citizens within the church, still maintaining their dietary laws when the need for them has passed, but also now beyond the reach of the gospel outside the church, heading for automatic damnation.” Quoted in  Liberating Paul: The Justice of God And the Politics of the Apostle – Neil Elliott (Sheffield 1995) p. 130

 

 

Paul is unlike Jonah who desired to see his enemies sizzle in the flames of divine judgment Jonah chapter 4

 

He is like Abraham who had compassion on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and pleaded with God to spare the city for the sake of a few righteous Genesis 19:16-33

 

If Paul’s could do so, he would give up his own life and salvation for the lives and salvation of his fellow Jews.

 

Paul and Jesus both said that salvation comes from the Jews.

 

Down through the centuries, the Christian Church would have done well to follow the teachings and attitude of Jesus and Paul

 

Instead of loving and respecting the Jews, the Church has hated and despised them.

 

The Church has caused millions of Jews untold sufferings.

 

Anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism did not begin or end with Hitler and the Nazis,

 

they existed in the Christian Church from the beginning and have been perpetuated and promoted in every century up to our day.

 

Back in the Middle Ages, a quarter of Europe’s population suffered and died from the bubonic plague;

 

People claimed that Jews were poisoning the wells.

 

Of course, the Jews were not to blame

 

The plague was caused from rats, which carried fleas that would bite people and transmit a bacterial plague.

 

 

 

Throughout Romans 9-11, Paul never says that the existence of the church does away with Israel.

 

Christians need to grasp, then, the dangers inherent in talking about the church as a new Israel.

 

The church shares the root, a root of God’s gracious faithfulness.

 

We do not appropriate Israel’s rich heritage of adoption, covenants, and promises. We participate in it. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/31/2011&tab=3&alt=1

 

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