For the third consecutive year, the École Biblique in partnership with the association Nostra Aetate 4 is offering a series of conferences on the Bible and Judaism. These evening lectures are intended for the general public and aim to help all those who wish to discover the Judaism of yesterday and today in connection with the Christian faith.
After a first conference on spirituality and liturgy on “Scripture in Jewish Prayer” (by Dr. Eliezer Schilt on January 30), we will turn to the New Testament. On March 25, Br. Olivier Catel OP will speak on “Jesus and the Pharisees”. The Gospel of Matthew, addressed to a Jewish audience, presents several legal discussions of a legal type between Jesus and mainly the Pharisees. What is the content of these discussions? In these discussions, what is the position of Jesus – revolutionary, traditional, messianic – on the question of divorce, purity and the “tradition of the fathers” ? The aim is to show that these passages of the Gospel which we understand in a Marcionite manner or which we spiritualize too much sometimes testify to a deep anchoring of Jesus in a Jewish world in full turmoil. This presents a way of better understanding the Jewish heritage and, ultimately, the incarnation of Christ’s message.
On April 22nd, Brother Louis-Marie of Abou Gosh will present the Compendium of Dialogue between Jews and Christians. This compendium of texts relating to dialogue, published by the French Bishops’ Conference, is intended to be “an interreligious sum which can be read as a guide for building fraternity”. It is a good opportunity, more than 50 years after the Declaration Nostra Aetate, to consider the road travelled.
There will be a further a conference on May 20th.
All are welcome : these conferences are open to all and are a beautiful opportunity to better understand the living reality of Judaism which we encounter here every day in the land where it was born.