Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

JEWISH "NO" AND CHRISTIAN "YES"
still far away from the expected redemption. Instead of standing as the
eschatological community at the end of history, the church has
entered history as a community parallel and often in rivalry and
conflict with the Jewish people. The net result of the messianic
outburst that took place in the year 33 within the Jewish community,
as a response to the events around Jesus of Nazareth, has been that a
new access, a new gate, in particular for non-Jews, has been opened to
the way of the Lord which began with Abraham (Gen. 18:19) and will
end in the kingdom of God. It is not true that the church has replaced
Israel or has taken over its vocation. Both Israel and the church await
the fulfillment of the Torah, when the image of God will be visible in
the whole of humanity. The Jews await this final Day incorporated in
the people of Israel, the Christians incorporated in the body of Christ.
And both are judged by the same God to whom they have to answer,
if they have been faithful to their particular vocation. The Jews have
expressed their faithfulness in a "no" to Jesus as his church tried to
take the Torah away from them. Christians may express their
faithfulness in their "yes" to Jesus who embodied the Torah, and
therefore also in a "yes" to his brothers and sisters, the Jewish people.
NOTES
1. Zur Erneuerung des Verhaltnisses von Christen und Juden, Handreichung der Evangelischen
Kirche in Rheinland, Nr. 39 (Mulheim, 1980), pp. 8-28; also in B. Klappert, H. Stark, eds.,
Umkehr und Erneuerung; Erlauterungen zum Synodalbeshluss der Rheinischen Landessynode 1980
"Zur Erneuerung des Verhaltnisses von Christen und Juden" (Neukirchen-Vluyn; Neukirchener
Verlag, 1980), pp. 263-81.
2. "ErwSgungen zur kirchlichen Handreichung zur Erneuerung des Verhaltnisses von
Christen und Juden" in Dokumentation des Evangelischen Pressedienstes (Frankfurt am Main,
Sept. 29, 1980).
3. In G. B. Ginzel, ed., Auschwitz als Herausforderung fur Juden und Christen (Heidelberg:
Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1980), p. 176.
4. Hanna Wolff, Neuer Wein-Alte Schlauche; das Identita'tsproblem des Christentums im Lichte
der Tiefenpsychologie (Stuttgart: Radius Verlag, 1981).
5. Adolf von Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei
Jahrhunderten (Leipzig, 1902), p. 50 (quotation translated by this author).
6. Gerhard Kittel, Die Judenfrage, 2nd ed., 1933, p. 61 (quoted in J. S. Vos, 'Politiek en
Exegese; Gerhard Kittelsbeeld vanhet jodendom,' in Verkenningen Bezinning, 17e Jaargang,
no. 2, September, 1983, p. 13).
7. Stefan Heym, 'Keynote Address to Christians and Jews/ in From the Martin Buber
House, issue no. 2, December, 1982, p. 8.
8. Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt, "Feinde um unsretwillen; 'Das judische Nein und die
christlicheTheologie," in Peter von der Osten-Sacken, ed. Treue zur Thora, Beitr&ge zur Mitte
des christlich-judischen Gesprachs; Festschrift fur Gunther Harder zum 75. Geburtstag, 2nd ed.
(Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1979), p. 174; 1st ed. 1977. (Quotation translated by
this author.)
9. This author's translation from the Hebrew.
10. Peter von der Osten-Sacken, Grundzuge einer Theologie im christliche-judischen Gesprach
(Munchen: Kaiser Verlag, 1982), pp. 139, 182.
63