By Dikla Tuchman , Special to JTNews
Do Christians really believe that the Jews are responsible for Jesus’ death? Do all Christians believe that Christianity is the one true faith and that the “Old Testament” is an invalid document that no longer applies? From Jan. 12 to 15, Amy-Jill Levine, a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University came to Seattle to speak with audiences about assumptions and misconceptions perceived and repeated about Judaism and Christianity.
To begin her whirlwind tour, Levine spoke with students and community members at Hillel at the University of Washington on the topic of “What Jews Get Wrong About Christianity.” She spent the bulk of her visit as scholar-in-residence at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation.
A self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” Levine “combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies,” according to her biography.
Levine, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Nashville, Tenn., recently co-wrote, with Brandeis University’s Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Annotated New Testament, an edited version of the New Testament writings in the context of the authors and audiences at the time it was written. Although the New Testament is not subscribed to by Jews, Levine says there’s much in the New Testament that corresponds to early Jewish history. If Jews can look objectively at the text of the New Testament and accept — though not necessarily believe — Christianity as a historical development with its basis in Jewish tradition, rather than an attack on Judaism, maybe Jews can hope for the same acceptance and respect from Christianity.
Rather than lecture, Levine opened the floor to the audience’s most common misconceptions, and then listed off her top five.
“When we talk about what Christians believe and what Jews believe, we’re only talking about what some Christians believe and what some Jews believe,” Levine said, making this important distinction for the audience. “Not all Christians believe the same thing, even within particular denominations.”
The same holds true, she said, for Jews.
Number one on Levine’s list was also number one for many of the audience members: “Deep down all Christians are anti-Jewish, because Christianity replaces Judaism.”
She said that many Jews feel that Christians believe Christianity “got it right,” when Judaism didn’t quite make it. Levine explained that this concept, often called replacement theology or supersessionism, can make that statement that upon the coming of Jesus as the messiah, the promise of the land of Israel to the Jews no longer applies and there is no longer a divine connection between Jews and Israel.
“So do some Christians go in that direction? Yes,” said Levine. But “the vast majority do not.”
She pointed to a writing, “The Epistle to the Romans,” by the apostle Paul, which says that “the gifts given to the Jews are irrevocable,” Levine said. “Because if God goes back onto my promises then no one can trust God. So, according to Paul, the Jews are still under covenant with God.”
Also, she noted, the idea of replacement theology isn’t all that uncommon.
“Pretty much every religion that comes after an earlier religion says, “˜We got it better than you did. We can even see this happening within the Christian tradition,” Levine said,
citing the example of the Protestant Reformation emerging from Roman Catholicism, and then the Anglicans, United Methodists, and the many other Protestant denominations that have sprung up since.
Levine also spoke extensively about how Christians and Jews can understand their different interpretations of the messiah. They don’t necessarily have to agree. Instead, Jews can look at how Christianity moved forward with its interpretation of Jesus as its proclaimed messiah, and what that meant for all previous Jewish texts and keeping within the strictures of Jewish law.
“The major issue here,” Levine pointed out, “is not who’s better and who’s more right, but rather, “˜How do I get along with my neighbor and respect that person regardless of that fact?’”
Levine is most concerned with engaging her audiences with the history and the original texts to get real answers and gain deeper understanding, rather than placing blame, jumping to conclusions, and continuing to pass along assumptions.
“The important thing is to recognize that all this stuff makes some sense in an early Jewish context. If we look at the fact that there’s mishugas in all religions, there’s a little bit of “˜I can’t possibly believe that!’ All religions have that,” she said. “The point of interfaith that I like is that it’s not for everyone to agree with each other, hold hands and sing Kumbaya. It’s to be able to understand where others are coming from, see what we hold in common, see where and why we differ.”