Our district "interfaith enabler" - what a daft title - is promoting a seminar at Queen's College Birmingham entitled "The Continuing Israel -Palestine Conflict: is it now defining the relationship between Jews and Christians?" (If you are interested you need to contact Dr John Pawlikowski at http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/cjcr/staff/pawlikowski.php by Thursday 30th September 2011 to cjrelations@ccj.org.uk or Telephone: Lindsay on 0207 015 5160).
I'm actually wondering about this. I object to the title which suggests all Christians and all Jews see the "Israel-Palestine conflict" as defining the relationship. I do know that there are Jews who have a minority view of opposition to the State of Israel. I get scores of emails each week, most of which now go straight to my spam box. This does serve to demonstrate that there is not always a homogeneous Jewish view on the future of Israel.
Among Christians there is a growing and sharpening divide between those of us who believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist within secure borders and those who have reverted to Christianity's age old anti-Semitism and accept the ultimate destruction of Israel and the Jews settled there. The latter dress their bigotry up in respectable - sometimes even "liberal" clothing - but the end result would be the same. If I were an Israeli I'd put my trust in the IDF rather than the goodwill of potentially murderous "Christians" who have reverted to type.
So is this the new dividing line in Christianity, especially among the Protestants? Many have predicted an historic split over issues such as same sex marriage, gay ordination or abortion. Others that it will go along the lines of some sort of liberation theology. Many believe that it will centre on the authority of Holy Scripture.
It seems to me that the historic fissure appearing in Western Christianity, perhaps as significant as Luther's ninety-five thesis, is between those Christians who are basically anti-Semitic and those who support the people of Israel in their right to life.
So should we really be surprised that there are those in British Methodism who are picking at the bones of what they consider to be a spiritually dead carcass to promote their age old hatred of Jews? And should we be equally surprised that there are a considerable number of Christians who believe that this new expression of anti-Semitism is completely wrong.
My advice to the Jewish community is that they should not allow the issue of Israel to define their relationship with Christians. I don't think the Jews on the Council for Christians and Jews should allow themselves to be beaten up by a handful of bigoted "Christians". Not all Christians are anti-Semitic. Many support the right of the people of the State of Israel - both Jewish and Arab - to defend themselves against global aggression.
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Well said, MP! It is vital to remember that anti-Zionist Jews constitute a tiny, albeit vociferous, minority. The vast majority of Jews, as represented by the democratically elected Board of Deputies, support the decisions of Israel's government, democratically elected by its six million Jewish and one million Arab citizens, to defend the lives of those citizens by whatever means necessary.
On another note, I was staggered when talking to a friend, a highly intelligent devout C of E churchgoer, to discover that she did not know that her (and your) Old Testament was in fact the Hebrew Tanakh translated (via the Greek Septuagint & the Latin Vulgate) into English. Is this ignorance widespread?
No, it isn't.
Just for information, most modern translations of what many of us prefer to call the Hebrew Bible are made from the Hebrew, not via the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Though of course the Greek and Latin translations are both important as sources.
Apparently one can be highly intelligent and devout, yet remain uneducated! I suspect your friend is in a minority: most church members I know would at least be aware that the OT was the Hebrew scriptures which would have been Jesus' Bible. A great deal depends on the standard of preaching and teaching in that particular church - and on how much the worshipper in question listens to what is taught.
Just one clarification - your comment "the Hebrew Tanakh translated (via the Greek Septuagint & the Latin Vulgate) into English" gives the impression that our Bibles are translated from other translations, rather than the original. That isn't true - all English Bibles are translated from the original Greek and Hebrew texts. Translators usually refer to the Septuagint where there are textual or linguistic difficulties, as for example where the oldest Hebrew scripts are much more recent than the LXX, so the Greek version helps scholars to see what the state of the Hebrew text was in its earlier recensions. It is also useful if the Hebrew word is obscure or a hapax legomena, in that it tells translators what that word meant to Greek-speaking Jews then. However, that is using the LXX as a reference rather than a source: the primary source for OT translators is the Hebrew Tanakh.
I object to the title which suggests all Christians and all Jews see the "Israel-Palestine conflict" as defining the relationship.
Well, I think you've put a lot of effort into promoting that idea.
I'm trying to figure out whether your point(s) is/are actually more subtle. Maybe something like "There is unconscious antisemitism present" or "In my opinion, these political attitudes work to promote antisemitism".
In taking the broad-brush approach and by using the emotive, sensationalist language of advertising and PR, you have pretty much promoted the idea that not only are most Methodists consciously working for antisemitism, but so too is the Methodist Church.
At least if you're going to be sensationalist and take the approach of "When did you stop beating your wife", don't act surprised when people buy the idea that someone has been beating his wife.
Thank you gentlemen for your contributions. I think that there is a lot of misunderstandings among churchgoers of all denominations about exactly where scripture comes from.
Pam, not for the first time, I'm at a loss to understand what you are trying to say.
Thanks Richard but I think we have had this discussion before:
http://methodistpreacher.blogspot.com/2011/05/open-hearts-open-minds-open-doors-and.html
David, just for clarification;
Anti-Semitic Christians are NOT 'reverting to type'! The Type (copy) and, more importantly, the anti-type (original) is Jesus Christ. When Christians become anti-Semitic they revert to a Pagan anti-type. Anti-Semitic Christians are DIverting FROM type.
This confusion is all part of the problem.
Thank you all for your learned comments on the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, especially Rev Tony B who delighted me with 'hapax legomenon' (NB singular) - haven't heard that one since doing Greek at school nearly forty years ago! Yes, of course I should have said that the English translators from Tyndale on took pains to draw on the Hebrew text, but I aimed for brevity at the expense of precision. Mea culpa!
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