Changing Christian Interpretations of the Old Testament

Abstract

In first-century CE Judaism, the Scriptures validated Jesus and his message, but later Christians “read back” to Old Testament sources of New Testament texts. Constant alluding to a past document tended to make the document look obsolete and useful only as a source. Can the Old Testament regain its generative power for Christians today? The article sketches the first-century Christian situation, looks at subsequent interpretation, and calls on recent Roman Catholic documents to revise old assumptions.