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-----Original Message----- Shalom friends, A friend of mine just discovered a link to the English version of the Pontifical Biblical Commission's 210 page report: The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible. I had mentioned this report in my own paper The Redemption of Israel (which was written long before the English version of the Vatican report was released). There is still a lot of ignorance being displayed on the part of the Vatican's top theologians in this report. However, there is also a lot of rethinking that is going on in the Vatican and this report has some surprising statements in it. This report has also caused a firestorm among the rabidly anti-Semitic factions with the Catholic Church as well as the rabidly anti-Semitic factions in Protestant Christianity. I see this move by the Vatican as a significant step which may cause many within the Catholic Church to begin to look at the scriptures with new insight. Two years ago my brother met a (high ranking) Catholic nun in Israel who considered herself to be a Messianic Jew. She attended a Messianic congregation every Shabbat. Yes folks, the redemption is beginning. Here is the link to the Vatican report:
More thoughts:
It surprises me that there is so much ignorance in the Vatican report, which paints all Pharisees with one brush. I am surprised since the Catholic Encyclopedia gives some very good insight into the two dominant schools of the Pharisees in its article on Shammai. This article also cites other Catholic theologians who believe that Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees was limited to those of the School of Shammai. Apparently the Vatican's own researchers did not look at what the Catholic Encyclopedia had to say.
Here is the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on Shammai: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13751a.htm
Kol tov, Shomeir |