Why it matters for reading Scripture
The Hebrew Bible is first Israel's Scripture. Jewish reading of it, from the rabbis to today, deserves to be understood fairly and without caricature.
Biblical studiesWhat does the text say?
Jewish studies and Jewish–Christian relations is the academic study of Jews and Judaism across their whole history, joined to the study of how Jews and Christians have read the Hebrew Bible and treated one another. It covers rabbinic and medieval Jewish interpretation, Jewish movements today, Christian teaching about Jews, and church and Jewish statements since 1945.
Study v1.1, 4 November 2026
The Hebrew Bible is first Israel's Scripture. Jewish reading of it, from the rabbis to today, deserves to be understood fairly and without caricature.
Rabbinic Jewish readers interpret the Hebrew Bible through the Mishnah, Talmud, midrash and named commentators, reading its contested texts without Christian messianic meaning; since 1945 many churches have repudiated collective Jewish guilt and replacement teaching.
Traditions and scholars divide on supersession, mission to Jews, Messianic Judaism, whether the State of Israel carries theological meaning, and the readings of Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7.
Affirms Torah min ha-shamayim, Torah from heaven: in the eighth of Maimonides' thirteen foundations of faith the whole Torah came from God through Moses, and its received interpretation is equally from God.
The Rabbinical Council of America, in 2013, rejected as contrary to historic Judaism the view that the Torah was largely composed by several fallible human authors. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik backed cooperation with Christians on social, political and ethical questions while taking a more cautious line on dialogue about matters of faith.
The stricter wing of Orthodoxy, itself made up of the Hasidic courts, the Lithuanian yeshiva world and Sephardi Haredim.
Moses Sofer, the Hatam Sofer, turned the Mishnaic phrase "the new is forbidden by the Torah" into a principle against any innovation. Agudat Israel, founded at Kattowitz in May 1912, accepts the decisions of its Council of Torah Sages as binding, and Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel objected in 2002 to printing critical scholarship alongside the text of the Torah.
Emet ve-Emunah (1988), the movement's statement of principles, calls the Torah the outcome of a divine and human encounter and describes three views of revelation held within the movement: that God communicated actual content in words, that an ineffable encounter inspired human beings to frame norms in human language, or that revelation is a continuing discovery of God's purpose through nature and history.
Etz Hayim, its Torah and haftarah edition, includes essays stating that the Torah was probably written by many hands over generations.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis has stated its principles in four platforms.
The Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 treated the Bible as moral instruction reflecting the ideas of its age and held only the moral laws binding; the Statement of Principles of 1999 calls the Torah the foundation of Jewish life and God's ongoing revelation, with renewed attention to the mitzvot. The Union for Reform Judaism describes the Torah as a living, evolving text and holds that there is "more than one authentic way to be Jewish".
For Mordecai M. Kaplan, as Richard Hirsh presents him, the Torah was a human document recording the Jewish people's early search for God, and tradition has "a vote but not a veto".
The movement's own writers present revelation not as dictation but as an ongoing call heard through human capacities and culture, and hold that the Torah is not merely a human creation. Britannica's starker summary, that the movement does not accept the Bible as the inspired word of God, is Britannica's characterization, which those writers qualify.
The one living Jewish movement that rejects the Oral Torah altogether: in Britannica's account it treats the Hebrew Bible as the sole source of doctrine and practice and rejects the Talmud as man-made law.
Meira Polliack describes it as a Jewish variant of sola scriptura, and notes that Karaites developed their own concept of tradition to codify practice. The Karaite Jews of America say that Karaites seek the plain meaning of the text.
The Society for Humanistic Judaism describes a Judaism independent of supernatural authority, with Jewish identity rooted in culture, history and ethics, and calls the movement nontheistic.
Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine founded the Birmingham Temple in 1963 as the first Humanistic congregation and helped establish the Society in 1969.
Nostra Aetate 4 (28 October 1965) affirms a spiritual bond between the Church and the descendants of Abraham and, citing Romans 11:28 to 29, that God's gifts and call are irrevocable.
The 1985 Notes of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews keep the traditional name Old Testament but state that "Old" does not mean out of date or outworn. The Commission's text of 10 December 2015, which states that it is not a magisterial document, rejects replacement theology while holding that the New Covenant fulfills the earlier covenants without revoking them, and says that the Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed toward Jews.
Its First Assembly, in 1948, received a report declaring "Anti-Semitism is sin against God and man."
The same report held that the Great Commission includes the Jewish people. In 1961 the Third Assembly added that Christian teaching must not present the events of the Crucifixion so as to place responsibility on the Jewish people of today. On mission its Faith and Order report of 1967 said plainly "we find ourselves divided", and the Sigtuna text of 1988 declared coercive proselytism incompatible with Christian faith while leaving the wider question open.
The Lutheran World Federation, in 1983, said that Lutherans cannot accept or condone Luther's violent verbal attacks on the Jews, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1994 rejected "this violent invective".
The Synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (1980) affirmed the permanent election of the Jewish people and read the founding of the State of Israel as a sign of God's faithfulness. The EKD Synod in 2016 stated that all efforts to move Jews to change their religion contradict the confession of God's faithfulness, while the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod holds that sharing the gospel with Jews is a biblical duty.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in a text of 1987 commended for study, describes the Church as grafted into the covenant people and states "Christians have not replaced Jews"; it binds the land promises to justice and rejects end-time readings of Israel's founding.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada (2011) holds that one covenant of grace embraces Jews and Gentiles, rejects replacement and calls for humble witness to Christ.
The Lambeth Conference of 1988, in a section report, rejected treating Judaism as a superseded "living fossil" and noted that Anglicans hold divided views on inviting Jews to faith in Jesus.
The Church of England's God's Unfailing Word (2019), a teaching document, treats supersessionism as flawed, names the charge of collective guilt for Christ's death among the Christian sins that call for repentance, and leaves a disagreement on mission visible: Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, in its afterword, voiced misgiving that it did not go further in rejecting evangelism directed at Jews.
Bridge in Hope (1972) states that there is "no valid biblical or theological basis for antisemitism" and calls for dialogue without seeking conversion.
Building New Bridges in Hope (1996) affirms that the Jewish people continue in covenantal relationship with God and treats the evangelization of Jews as a matter for continuing reflection.
The Willowbank Declaration (1989), the Manila Manifesto (1989), the Southern Baptist Convention's resolution of 1996 and the Cape Town Commitment (2010) hold that Christian witness to Jews is required.
Willowbank states that failing to preach the gospel to Jews would itself be a form of antisemitism, while the Cape Town Commitment does not mention antisemitism. Willowbank also affirms that Jewish people "have an ongoing part in God's plan".
The official text of the Holy and Great Council of Crete (2016) affirms the equality of every person regardless of race or religion but does not use the word antisemitism.
A Christian Roundtable of Orthodox priests and cultural figures, meeting in Jerusalem in 2007, rejected replacement theology and asked for review of certain hymns of Passion Week; its standing is that of a private declaration. The contributors to Orthodox Liturgy and Anti-Judaism (2024) disagree on whether and how such hymns should be revised.
The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations describe their movement as Jewish.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis (1985) states that all recognized Jewish movements regard belief in Jesus as God, Messiah or Savior as Christian doctrine outside Judaism, and the Conservative Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (2012) treats members of Messianic groups as apostate Jews. Israel's High Court of Justice, in HCJ 265/87 as a law firm's summary reports it, held that belief in Yeshua's messiahship placed a person in another religion under section 4B of the Law of Return.
During the First Crusade, the Hebrew chronicle of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan records about 800 Jews killed at Worms over two days and about 1,300 at Mainz in a single day. The bishops of Speyer, Mainz and Cologne tried to shelter Jews; at Mainz and Cologne the refuge failed.61
Pope Calixtus II issues the protective bull Constitutio pro Judaeis, opening with Gregory I's words "Sicut Judaeis"; later popes often renew it on their accession, usually at Jewish request.62
The Fourth Lateran Council requires Jews and Saracens to wear distinctive dress and bars Jews from public office over Christians (canons 68 and 69).63
At Barcelona, before King James I of Aragon, Nahmanides debates the convert Pablo Christiani on three questions, among them whether the Messiah has already come; after he publishes his account the king can no longer protect him, and he leaves the country.66
The edict of Ferdinand and Isabella gives the Jews of Spain the choice of exile or baptism; Britannica states that more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.67
Leopold Zunz's essay Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur argues that Judaism and its literature belong in university scholarship, and the Jewish Encyclopedia treats it as the first outline of a Jewish science. With it the modern field begins, in the movement known as the Wissenschaft des Judentums.7475
The Ten Points of Seelisberg, which drew on Jules Isaac's eighteen recommendations, ask that Judaism not be distorted in order to exalt Christianity and that the idea of a rejected, cursed or suffering-destined Jewish people not be promoted. The CCJR places them among the first postwar Christian documents in which Christians, advised by Jews, began to face the implications of the Shoah.7677
Paul VI proclaims Nostra Aetate at the Second Vatican Council. Its section 4 decries hatred, persecutions and displays of antisemitism directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.23
Dabru Emet, a Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity written by Tikva Frymer-Kensky, David Novak, Peter Ochs and Michael Signer and co-signed by over 200 rabbis and scholars, appears in the New York Times. It is a statement of individual scholars, not of any rabbinic body.78
The Conference of European Rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel present Between Jerusalem and Rome to Pope Francis. It describes the beliefs centered on Jesus as Messiah as an irreconcilable separation, yet calls Catholics partners, allies, friends and brothers.79
A Journey of Hope, a curial note approved by Leo XIV, says that Jesus was and always remained a Jew and affirms God's irrevocable covenant with the Jewish people while rejecting two parallel paths to salvation. Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome, welcomes its condemnation of antisemitism but judges its insistence on Christ as sole Redeemer theologically unresolved.8081
Start from a named translation, with the relevant Hebrew or Greek and any material alternative rendering beside it, since a translation already contains interpretive decisions.
Set out what named scholars or reference works say of the passage's date, setting and grammar.
Name each Jewish and Christian reading by its holder, with the work, century, verse or church body, and show the range within each tradition where readings differ8.
State where the readings meet and where they part, as a description, without a verdict on which reading is right.
Cite each source to its speaker, passage, edition and, where it matters, textual variant: Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 reads "one soul of Israel" in the printed editions, while MS Kaufmann A 50, MS Parma 3173 and MS Munich 95 lack the addition8687.
Label each claim by its kind: historical reconstruction, peshat (plain sense), midrash, halakhic ruling, theological claim or communal practice.
Allow for censorship: the printed texts of the Talmud and of some commentaries were cut by censors or printers, so a passage missing from a standard text may have been removed rather than never written8889.
Attribute every date where authorities differ, since datings of the midrashim and Targums differ by centuries between the Jewish Encyclopedia and Sefaria's catalogue909192.
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No. The Jewish movements differ on revelation and on the authorship of the Torah: the Rabbinical Council of America treats multiple human authorship as contrary to historic Judaism, the Conservative statement Emet ve-Emunah describes three views of revelation, Reconstructionist writers present revelation as a call heard through human capacities and culture, and the Karaites reject the rabbinic Oral Torah281416. Even a doctrine shared across the classical rabbinic tradition, such as the Oral Torah of Berakhot 5a, is not universal, since Karaites, Reconstructionists and Humanists depart from it136161520.
In several ways. Rashi and Radak read the servant as Israel among the nations, with 53:1 to 4 spoken by the nations147148. Ibn Ezra expounds the Israel reading, then at the close of his comment on 53:12 gives his own view, linking the servant to 42:1, 49:3 and the figure of 50:6149. Targum Jonathan names the servant as the Messiah but moves the suffering away from him, and Sotah 14a applies 53:12 to Moses150151. Christian readers, from Acts 8:32 to 35 onward, read the servant as Jesus152.
Nostra Aetate 4, proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council on 28 October 1965, affirms the Church's spiritual bond with the descendants of Abraham and recalls that the apostles and most of the early disciples were Jews23. It holds that what happened in the Passion cannot be charged against all Jews then living or against Jews today, and that Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from Scripture23.
Positions differ by body. The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (2015) says that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports institutional mission work directed toward Jews, while Christians remain called to bear witness with humility and sensitivity26. The EKD Synod (2016) rejects all efforts to move Jews to change their religion34. The Willowbank Declaration, the Southern Baptist Convention (1996) and the Cape Town Commitment hold that witness to Jews is required424445. The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom have criticized mission directed at Jews15339.
Scholars disagree. The volume edited by James D. G. Dunn in 1992 frames the parting between 70 and 135 CE; an endorsement of Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed's volume summarizes its thesis that the two became clearly separate only after about 400 CE; and Daniel Boyarin, in Michael Carden's reading, places the key developments in the fourth and fifth centuries84154155. Judith Lieu questions the parting model itself, arguing that it serves a theological wish and would not have been recognized by Christians, Jews or pagans of the period85.
Reviewed and approved by Duane Herholdt, BA (Theology), Chief Executive Officer, Numa Verse
Study version: v1.1, 4 November 2026 (theology map v1.27)
Last reviewed: 9 November 2026