구약성서와 신약성서의 연속과 단절 기독교와 유대교의 문화적 소통을 위하여

Abstract

We, all Christians, know that the Old Testament and the New Testament both are the canons and the words of God. But many Chris- tians are accustomed to interpret the Old Testament as the one inferior to the New Testament and is replaceable by the New Testament. There are 5 models to explain the relationship between the Old and the New Testament, but most of the Christians prefer to use the "contrast model", namely, "the Old versus the New", "Law versus Gospel", "Wrath versus Mercy", "Leah versus Rachel", "Hagar versus Sarah" and etc. In the contrast model, preference of the New Testament/Christianity and hostility against the Old Testament/Judaism is clearly expressed or deeply implicated. Although no Christian will admit that he/she is against the Old Testament or rejects the God of Israel, it is true that Christians have a tendency - consciously or unconsciously - to reject or to look down the Old Testament. It is a great contradiction that Christians use the Old Testament as the canon on the one hand and reject the Jews on the other hand. The Old Testament is the religious treasure of the Judaism which has been written by the Jews and for the Jews and have been adopted by Christians later. What was the background of Anti-Judaism? How can we explain the Holocaust? In this article I will try to explore the roots of the anti-Judaism in the history of the Christianity and try to suggest a way to interpret the Old Testament properly. Apparently Jesus was a Jew. The crowds who heard him, his earliest disciples, the apostle Paul - all were Jews. According to the historical survey of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus had neither intention to reject the Old Testament, nor to establish a new religion. Yet, there were many different groups of Jewish people about this time. The heated polemic against different types of Jews has been unfortunately interpreted as the polemic against the Judaism itself. As Christianity grew, it became a community conspicuous for not living according to the Jewish law and traditions. And Marcion, who lived in the second century(85-159 A.D.) and was influenced by Valentinus(130 A. D.), was the father of the anti-Judaism in the church history. The root of his teaching lies in the Pauline antithesis of Law and Gospel. But he exaggerated this contrast to distinguish the Creator from the true God. Finally the Christian church declared that Marcion was heretic and condemned his church as heretical. Still, there has been always the followers of Marcion in the Christian church from the early Christian era to Holocaust. The real cause of anti-Judaism can be found in the allegorical theories of Justin Martyr, Tertulian, Irenaeus, Hippollytus. For them, "the Old Testa- ment is good, but the Jews are bad". In this ambiguous theories and the interpretations of the Old Testament, there were seeds to rejection of the Old Testament and the Jews.