{"id":88756,"date":"2021-02-14T18:33:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T16:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=88756"},"modified":"2021-02-14T18:33:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T16:33:59","slug":"jews-and-christians-on-the-psalms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jews-and-christians-on-the-psalms\/","title":{"rendered":"Jews and Christians On The Psalms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bible was inherited and interpreted by two religions: Judaism and Christianity. For Christians, the Jewish Bible \u2013 their \u201cOld Testament\u201d \u2013 contained ancient prophecies about the rise, career, and death of Jesus. The poetic non-specificity of the Psalter, almost more than any other biblical book, provided an ample canvas upon which to paint a portrait of their future savior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his monumental Psalm commentary, the prolific Christian leader Augustine (354-430 CE) assumes that nearly every psalm contains reference to Jesus. And none delighted Christians in search of Jesus more than Psalm 110. It describes the victory of a mighty warrior who is also an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek (v4). This imagery fits the Christian understanding of Jesus as both a king (Matt 1:1-17) and a high priest (Heb 5:5-6). Christians, additionally, point to the strange opening verse: \u201cThe Lord (YHWH) said to my L\/lord (<\/span>adoni<\/span><\/em>), \u2018Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool\u2019.\u201d They read the first Lord as God and the second as Jesus. In both the Greek and Latin translation, the texts from which most Christians would encounter Scripture, both the four-letter name of God and <\/span>adoni <\/span><\/i>are translated with the same word: <\/span>kurios<\/em> <\/span>(Lord) in Greek and <\/span>dominus<\/em> <\/span>(Lord) in Latin. For Christians it was simple: There are two mentions of a divine figure \u2013 the first is the father and the second is the son.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jews, of course, would not brook such an interpretation. In response to the Christian appropriation of their sacred texts, ancient Jews developed a counter-hermeneutic \u2013 a way of reading Psalm 110 that would undermine its association with Jesus. They did so by reading Abraham as the referent of the poem\u2019s contentious lines. According to Genesis Rabbah 55:6, Abraham \u2013 and not Jesus \u2013 was both a king and a priest: \u201cAbraham said <\/span>hineni<\/em> <\/span>\u2018here I am\u2019 twice, [the first] \u2018here I am\u2019 is for priesthood [and the second] is for kingship; he merited priesthood and he merited kingship.\u201d The midrash then cites Psalm 110:4 as proof of Abraham\u2019s priesthood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bavli Nedarim 32b further undermines Christian claims: God initially intended for the priesthood to come from the seed of Melchizedek. However, since Melchizedek blessed Abraham before blessing God (Gen 14:19), God took away his priestly status and bestowed it upon Abraham. As proof, the Bavli then cites verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 110 \u2013 the linchpin in any Christian argument. For Jews, only Abraham was ever accorded with the honor of being both a king and a priest. Jesus, on the other hand, could not have been sworn into the priesthood of Melchizedek because the latter\u2019s status was stripped from him (read: Christians) and given to Abraham (read: Jews).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the original audience of these midrashim, Jews living during a time of Christian flourishing and creeping dominance, the message is clear: History vitiates prophecy. Jews, not Christians, determine what exactly the Bible means.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Disputation between Jewish and Christian scholars. 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