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Supersessionism
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Supersessionism (British English: supercessionism) and replacement theology are particular interpretations of New Testament claims, viewing God's relationship with Christians as being either the "replacement" or "completion" of the promise made to the Jews (or Israelites) and Jewish Proselytes.
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Supersessionism (British English: supercessionism) and replacement theology are particular interpretations of New Testament claims, viewing God's relationship with Christians as being either the "replacement" or "completion" of the promise made to the Jews (or Israelites) and Jewish Proselytes. Biblical expressions of God's relationships with people are known as covenants, so the contentious element of supersessionism is the idea that the New Covenant with the Christians and the Christian Church somehow "replaces" or "completes" the Mosaic Covenant (or Torah) with the Israelites and B'nei Noah.
Etymology
The word supersessionism comes from English supersede, first known to have been used with the meaning replace in 1642. Prior to this time the word is attested in Scottish legal English to describe restraining orders against debt collection, restraint being its original Latin sense.
(The Latin for replace is succedere.) The preposition super is applied to intensify the verb sedere, as in English hold up. Both forms can mean to delay. Hence the term supersessionism does not come from the Latin Church Fathers' description of their own views but as the application of a modern term to older views.
The word supersession is used by S. Thelwall in the title of chapter three of his 1870 translation of Tertullian's Adversus Iudaeos (written between 198 and 208). The title is provided by Thelwall; it is not in the original Latin.
Types of supersessionism
Both Christian and Jewish theologians have identified different types of supersessionism in Christian reading of the Bible.
R. Kendall Soulen notes three categories of supersessionism are identified by Christian theologians: punitive, economic, and structural.
- Punitive supersessionism is represented by figures such as Hippolytus, Origen, and Luther. It is the view that Jews who reject Jesus as the Jewish Messiah are consequently condemned by God, forfeiting the promises otherwise due to them under the covenants.
- Economic supersessionism does not refer to money, rather it is used in the technical theological sense of function (see economic trinity). It is the view that the practical purpose of the nation of Israel in God's plans is replaced by the role of the church. It is represented by writers such as Justin Martyr and Augustine.
- Structural supersessionism is Soulen's term for the de facto marginalization of the Old Testament as normative for Christian thought. In his words, "Structural supersessionism refers to the narrative logic of the standard model whereby it renders the Hebrew Scriptures largely indecisive for shaping Christian convictions about how Gods works as Consummator and as Redeemer engage humankind in universal and enduring ways." Soulen's terminology is used by Craig A. Blaising, in 'The Future of Israel as a Theological Question'. See also Biblical law in Christianity, Antinomianism, and Marcionism.
These three views are neither mutually exclusive, nor logically dependent, and it is possible to hold all of them or any one with or without the others.
Jewish theologian and rabbinic scholar David Novak suggests that there are three options:
- The new covenant is an extension of the old covenant.
- The new covenant is an addition to the old covenant.
- The new covenant is a replacement for the old covenant.
He observes, "In the early Church, it seems, the new covenant presented by the New Testament was either taken to be an addition to the old covenant (the religion of the Torah and the Jewish Pharisaic tradition, summarized in the Ten Commandments), or it was taken to be a replacement for the old covenant."
Novak considers both understandings to be supersessionist. He designates the first as "soft supersessionism" and the second as "hard supersessionism". The former "does not assert that God terminated the covenant of Exodus-Sinai with the Jewish people. Rather, it asserts that Jesus came to fulfill the promise of the old covenant, first for those Jews already initiated into the covenant, who then accepted his messiahhood as that covenant's fulfillment. And, it asserts that Jesus came to both initiate and fulfill the promise of the covenant for those Gentiles whose sole connection to the covenant is through him. Hence, in this kind of supersessionism, those Jews who do not accept Jesus' messiahhood are still part of the covenant in the sense of 'what God has put together let no man put asunder' [emphasis original]." See also Dual-covenant theology.
Hard supersessionism, on the other hand, asserts that "[t]he old covenant is dead. The Jews by their sins, most prominently of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, have forfeited any covenantal status." See also Antinomianism.
This classification provides mutually exclusive options. Hard supersessionism implies both punitive and economic supersessionism, however soft supersessionism does not fall into any of the three classes recognized as supersessionist by Christian theologians.
Christian views
The early Christian theologians saw Christianity as a replacement of Israel. Historically, statements on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church have claimed her ecclesiastical structures to be a replacement of Israel. Modern Catholicism continues to affirm these spokesmen as authoritative for doctrine, alongside the New Testament. On the other hand, modern Protestants holding to covenant theology or dispensationalism explicitly affirm a continuing relationship between God and Israel, within their respective frameworks for understanding the Bible.
The Jewish-Christian dialog has changed dramatically since the early centuries. In the first century Gentile (non-Jewish) inclusion was the significant issue, while two millennia later Jewish exclusion is the issue.
The New Testament repeatedly gives Jews preeminence, as in Jesus' expression of his central mission as being to the Jews rather than Gentiles and in Paul's formula "first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Yet after the death of Jesus, the inclusion of the Gentiles as equals in this burgeoning sect of Judaism also caused problems, particularly when it came to Gentiles keeping the Mosaic Law, which was both a major issue at the Council of Jerusalem and a theme of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
By contrast, in modern discourse, the term supersessionism arises as a criticism of a (perceived) Christian belief in Jewish exclusion, not as a Christian articulation of their own understanding of the relation between the Christians and Jews. Modern Christian descriptions of the New Testament teaching in this area focus on Gentile inclusion in God's plans, without much if any consideration of Jewish exclusion. Although modern Christians, nearly all of whom are Gentiles, naturally believe in Gentile inclusion, they are divided in their understanding of whether the New Testament teaches Jewish exclusion. In short, some modern Christians believe in supersessionism and others don't.
New Testament
- Matthew 5:17-20: "'Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
- John 4:22: "'You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.'"
- Romans 1:16-17: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.' [Habakkuk 2:4]"
- Romans 2:28-29: "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God."
- Romans 3:29-31: "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law."
- Romans 9:6-8: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring."
- Romans 10:12-13: "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' [Joel 2:32]"
- Romans 11:1-6: "I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 'Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.' But what is God's reply to him? 'I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace."
- Romans 11:26: "So all Israel will be saved."
- Galatians 2:14-16: "When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners" know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.'"
- Galatians 3:29: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."
- Ephesians 2:11-22, especially v. 14: "For He Himself [Jesus] is our peace, who made both groups [Jews and non-Jews] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall."
Church fathers
Many Early Christian commentators understood the New Testament to teach supersession, for example:
- Justin Martyr (about 100 to 165): "For the true spiritual Israel ... are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ."
- Hippolytus of Rome (martyred 13 August 235): "[The Jews] have been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting."
- Origen (about 185 to 254): "[The Jews] will never be restored to their former condition."
Augustine (354430) follows these views of the earlier Church Fathers, but he introduces a new angle on the importance to Christianity of the continued existence of the Jewish people: "The Jews ... are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ." Jeremy Cohen,
followed by John Y. B. Hood and James Carroll, sees this as having had decisive social consequences, with Carroll saying, "It is not too much to say that, at this juncture, Christianity 'permitted' Judaism to endure because of Augustine."
Various forms of supersessionism have been the mainstream Christian interpretation of the New Testament since the inception of all three main branches of Christianity Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant.
Protestant views
Protestant views on supersessionism revolve around their understanding of the relationship between the various covenants of the Bible, particularly the relationship between the covenants of the Old Testament and the New Covenant. The most prominent Protestant views on this relationship are called Law and Gospel, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, and Dispensationalism. These views are not restricted to a single denomination.
Law and Gospel
The approach among many early Protestants that predominates today in Lutheran churches and some Reformed churches. It emphasizes the discontinuity between the old covenant and the new and sees the Mosaic Law primarily as negative. Most of the early advocates of this approach, such as Martin Luther (14831546), rejected the Jews as having a continuing positive relationship with God.
Covenant Theology
Covenant theology, while sometimes mixed with Law and Gospel, is a framework for thinking about biblical ideas typical of (but not exclusive to) the Reformed churches (see also Roman Catholic Covenant Theology). The Protestant Reformer John Calvin is typically credited with establishing the basic principles of covenant theology in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (2:911). The three covenants Calvin saw implied by the Bible are the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace
In the view of Calvin, and those who follow him, the first is a covenant between God the Father and God the Son and states that the Son would be the ruler of a people he would personally redeem. Covenant Theology deliberately views the rescue of humanity as part of God's plan, prior even to creating the world. This idea is as objectionable to some Christians, as it is loved by others, its most common name is predestination. A key New Testament passage is , which also deals with the place of Israel.
The covenants of works and grace, on the other hand, refer to God's covenants with man, rather than with himself, and these occur later in time, during human history. Briefly stated, both covenants are conceived of as "gifts" from God to man. They differ in that the covenant of works is a gift received by obedience God promises good to those who do good. The covenant of grace, however, is an unconditional gift that can only be received by faith God promises good even to those who have done bad.
In Calvin's scheme, the idea of supersession does not even arise. Because his reading of the Bible saw Jesus as God the Son and Redeemer from even before creation, those saved under Old Testament revelation, and those saved under the New are more properly, in his view, understood as saved under the same, eternal covenant of redemption. All salvation depends on a pact between Father and Son, before creation, independent of humanity. We become aware of the covenant of redemption progressively, through the revelation of various manifestations of the covenants of works and of grace. Calvin says:
In Calvin's view, the difference between old and new revelation is a difference in clarity not kind. As such, it is not conceived of as a replacement in any sense. Calvin's ideas were startling and unprecedented, and he is still controversial within Protestantism today. Whatever subsequent covenant theologians may have said, Calvin himself is explicitly against replacement:
Dispensationalism
The early development of Dispensationalism is generally attributed to John Nelson Darby (18001882), initially of the Plymouth Brethren denomination, but later the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. Although Darby's ideas started in the United Kingdom, they became much more widespread in the United States, perhaps due to population, and the non-exclusive nature of the American denominations that valued the teaching. The notes of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909 revised 1917) are frequently considered to have been particularly influential in establishing the popularity of Dispensationalism.
Like Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism is an interpretive or narrative framework for understanding the overall flow of the Bible. It perceives the biblical description of God's manner of dealing with mankind to fall into seven epochs known as dispensations:
- of innocence (Gen 1:13:7), prior to Adam's fall;
- of conscience (Gen 3:88:22), Adam to Noah;
- of government (Gen 9:111:32), Noah to Abraham;
- of patriarchal rule (Gen 12:1Exod 19:25), Abraham to Moses;
- of the Mosaic Law (Exod 20:1Acts 2:4), Moses to Jesus;
- of grace (Acts 2:4Rev 20:3), the current church age; and
- of a literal, earthly 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom that has yet to come (Rev 20:420:6).
A natural misunderstanding of Dispensationalism sees the covenant of Sinai (dispensation #5) to have been replaced by the gospel (dispensation #6). However, Dispensationalists believe that ethnic Israel, distinct from the church, and on the basis of the Sinai covenant, are featured in New Testament promises, which they interpret as referring to a future time associated with the Millennium of Revelation 20 (dispensation #7). In Dispensational thought, although the time from Jesus' resurrection until his return (or the advent of the Millennium) is dominated by the proclamation of the gospel, the Sinai covenant is neither terminated nor replaced, rather it is "quiescent" awaiting a fulfillment at the Millennium (click to expand diagram). This time of Jewish restoration has an especially prominent place within Dispensationalism.
Dispensationalists do not base this view on the New Testament alone, but consider that certain Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel will also be fulfilled in a return to the Promised Land, and ultimately a large-scale conversion of the Jews to Christianity. Those who hold this view often note that the Bible does not promise that every individual Jew will be saved, but that the nation (or family) as a whole will be saved. It will still be up to individuals to accept Jesus as Messiah, but the nation as a whole will be blessed, because many (or most) will do so.
A distinctive feature of the dispensationalist scheme is that it conceives of the church age as primarily an arrangement through which God gathers in the Gentiles, a parenthesis in his dealing with the Jews, instituted due to the Jewish people rejecting the Messiah at his first coming.
- Romans : "Hence I ask, did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous. 12Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world, and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles, how much more their full number."
In the dispensationalist view, the Jewish restoration and acceptance of the Messiah will be as a people distinct from the Christian Church. Some believe the church will have actually ceased to exist on the earth at this time, having been removed by a miracle called the Rapture. Most dispensationalists believe that the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel, spoken of in the Book of Revelation, are either the literal or symbolic number of ethnic Jews who will be followers of the Messiah during a Great Tribulation. In the meantime, dispensationalists typically hold that the promise "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse" (Genesis 12:3) has abiding reference to the Jewish people; and some apply this to the modern, political state of Israel. Such ideas are often used in support of Christian Zionism.
With regard to supersessionism, then, Dispensationalism's key contribution to the history of Christian interpretation is this view that the fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel is postponed until the end of history. Traditional Christian interpretation, on the other hand, has seen the fulfillment of the covenant as progressive starting with the apostles and early Jewish Christians and continuing throughout subsequent history in Messianic Judaism, until finally complete at the return of the Messiah. In either view, individual Jews are anticipated to accept Jesus as Messiah, and not by becoming Gentile Christians first, but directly on the basis of the original promises to ethnic Israel. Neither of these interpretations is, as such, viewing the promises to Israel as either terminated or replaced.
Roman Catholicism
As has been noted above, Covenant Theology is not a specifically Protestant theological system. It draws on the writings of the Church Fathers, and modern Catholic theologians have also derived similar conclusions in their reading of the Bible. However, in contrast to Protestantism, Roman Catholicism has an intricate formal system of checks and balances on biblical interpretation. In an effort to safeguard reliability, it provides a hierarchy of sources, stretching from the absolute authority of the Bible and ex cathedra papal declarations, through approved Church Fathers, right down to authorized, active theological researchers. In this way, Catholicism seeks to serve its members with trustworthy official positions on biblical issues.
During the Second Vatican Council, the term People of God was introduced in Church ecclesiology, denoting a common heritage between Christians and Jews.
Supersessionism is not the name of any official Catholic doctrine. However, Catholicism officially accepts Cyprian's (died 14 September 258) doctrine extra ecclesiam nulla salus outside the church there is no salvation.
Because church is understood as specifically the Roman Catholic Church, with all its visible structure, there is a concrete sense in which the Judaism of the Old Testament is thus implicitly replaced, in Catholic thought, by: the Catholic hierarchy, Catholic canon law and the sacred rites of the Catholic Church.
Explicit statements that the Catholic system would consider to have a measure of authority, but which critics would consider supersessionist are numerous. In the 5th century, Pope Leo I pointed to Mark 15:38 to support his teaching that, "there [was] effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church."
In the 15th century during the Council of Florence, Pope Eugene IV wrote in his Bull of Union with the Copts that, "[The Catholic Church] firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Catholic Church before the end of their lives."
Pope Pius XII, in his 1943 encyclical Mystici Corporis, wrote that, "The New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished." As authority, he paraphrased Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14 in paragraph 29, "Jesus made void the Law with its decrees [and] fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross;" and he paraphrased Ephesians 2:16 and later 2:14 in paragraph 32, "[Jesus] made the Old Law void 'that He might make the two in Himself into one new man,' that is, the Church, and might reconcile both to God in one Body by the Cross." Thus Pius condemned a two-path approach to salvation (one way for Christians and another way for Jews), affirming that the Roman Catholic Church was established for the salvation of all people, both Gentiles and Jews, but also excluding a continued validity to the covenant of Exodus-Sinai.
The Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, on the other hand, introduced the idea that, although salvation comes from Christ, those "who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience" may still attain salvation. Those outside of the formal boundaries of the church may be considered inside the informal boundaries of the church, and hence saved, if their separation from the church is a result of invincible ignorance and if the people nevertheless try to love God and follow the laws that they understand to be His. The statement "no salvation outside the church" has been clarified to mean that anyone who attains salvation, even if they are not Catholic (even if they do not believe in Catholicism), has attained salvation because of Jesus (who is tied to the church), and despite their personal non-Catholic religious beliefs. In other words, they may attain salvation (assuming they follow the moral law written in their hearts by God) not because of their beliefs (in the case of Judaism, Islam, etc.) but despite their beliefs, through Jesus (and the church's) mercy. In such a case it is assumed that the individuals are implicitly part of the church-but outside of it's formal bounds-because the reason they are not Catholic (and would otherwise be Catholic) is through invincible ignorance (such as never hearing about Catholicism or being raised in an environment hostile to Catholicism or in a family of a different religion).
Despite all the history, however, the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (2006), states explicitly: "The covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them." Just precisely what authority this statement in the catechism has, or whether it is an error, is a matter of internal debate among American Catholics, and the US Bishops have voted to change this part of the Catechism. See also Biblical law in Christianity#The Roman Catholic view of the Mosaic Law and Dual covenant theology.
Other views
Eastern Orthodox and Pentecostal groups, although quite different, have in common a focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in defining church membership. It has long been noted by theologians that pursuit of a dynamic, experiential and personal experience of faith has been typical of eastern theology, where legal and logical formulations have dominated in the Western churches. When articulated in formal ways, Orthodox theology looks very similar to Catholicism; Pentecostalism, on the other hand, is often associated with Dispensationalism. However, in practice, the focus on personal spirituality rather than intellectual assent, means detailed analysis of covenantal issues is considerably less a feature of these traditions.
A few groups assert that their group is literally descended from Abraham, and has a better claim to being considered the chosen people than the Jewish people. In adopting the identity of "the true Israel," they necessarily see the Jewish people as false Israel (see, for example, Anglo-Israelism, Christian Identity and Black Hebrew Israelite, Abrahamic religions).
Some Evangelical Christians hold to a "Fulfillment Theology" that simultaneously rejects replacement theology and yet maintains there is no racially elect status for today's descendants of those ethnic Jews who do not accept Jesus as Israel's Messiah. They understand the Old Testament to categorically declare corporate Israel as the God's eternal chosen people. Yet since many individual Israelites throughout the Old Testament were "excommunicated" out of Israel and had no more covenantal status, these Christians understand racial heritage alone to be insufficient to be in covenant with God. They view the status of being elect as being dependent upon, not just heritage or ritual, but true belief and submission to God.
Thus these Evangelicals view Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies of the renewal of Israel by incorporating non-Jewish believers into vital Israel. Christians, in this view, are the continuation and completion of Judaism. The elect people, which is depicted as a tree in Romans chapter 11, has its unfaithful (or "dead") branches broken off and faithful Gentile converts grafted in. The tree itself is not replaced but pruned.
Jewish view
From a Jewish perspective, the Torah was given to the Jewish people as an eternal covenant (for example , ) and will never be replaced or added to (for example , ), and hence Judaism rejects supersessionism as contrary to the Hebrew Bible at best (see also Antinomianism) and antisemitic at worst. For Judaism and other critics, supersessionism is a theology of replacement, which substitutes the Christian church, consisting of Christians, for the Jewish and B'nei Noah people. Modern Jews are offended by the traditional Christian belief in supersessionism, and historians cite the belief as one of the roots of anti-semitism in western culture.
Supersessionists, however, understand their view as a theology of fulfillment in which no Jew who truly believes the Gospel is ever replaced and in which any unbelieving Jew (like Ahab or Judas Iscariot) was never truly part of God's chosen people because he or she had never followed God. Even as Judaism anticipates its own fulfillment in a coming Jewish messiah, Christianity claims that Jesus is the expected Jewish Messiah, that in Him the expectations of Israel were fulfilled, and that his Second Coming will be the final consummation of this hope, rather than a replacement for it.
See also
Further reading
External links
- Robert A. Sungenis. (supporting supersessionism)
- supporting supersessionism and seeking a change to the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (2006, ISBN 978-1-57455-450-2) which states that "the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them."
- an article by Catholics opposing supersessionism.
- Michael J. Vlach. (opposing supersessionism)
- (opposing supersessionism)
- Mikael Knighton. (opposing supersessionism)
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