Contempt or Respect? Jews and Judaism in Christian Preaching

Abstract

Christian sermons often involve discussion of Jews and Judaism, since they are based on the Bible: the Old Testament, which both is and isn’t the Jewish Tanakh and the New Testament, which reflects the fraught first stages of Christianity’s separation from Judaism. Most Christian preachers are not experts in Second Temple Judaism, the context of Jesus’ ministry, nor do they have much, or indeed any, contact with contemporary Jews. How can they be equipped to talk about Jews and Judaism with respect, rather than perpetuating the traditional ‘teaching of contempt’? This article discusses Christian interpretation of the Old Testament; Jesus the Jew, and his relationship with the Pharisees; and the Christian doctrine of supersessionism.