old testament, hebrew bible?

Thoughts on language and terminology relating to the Bible.

The term Old Testament has some serious problems associated with it.

1. It evokes a history of supersessionism--that is that Christianity superseded Judaism. That set the stage for Hitler's rise....Nazism was a religious tribal regression under the guise of secularism but Nazism would never have had the support it did with the centuries of Christian anti-Judaism.

2. If you are Jew, there is nothing "Old" about this testament. There is no new testament to make another old.

The term preferred more now is Hebrew Bible. This term has some problems as well.

1.Jews don't use it. The Bible is a Christian concept by and large. For the orthodox Jew there is the Torah (5 Books of Moses) and the other writings--Prophets, Historical Books, Wisdom Lit. Christians are the ones who see these books as all revealed and more or less of equal value. So Hebrew Bible is still a mostly Christian imperial (one might say) stamping of one's view onto a people who should be able to define themselves and their heritage.

2.It re-evokes, unintentionally, the heresy of Marcionism. Marcion taught that there were two separate gods--the evil OT god of vengeance and the New Testament God of Love. By saying it is the Hebrew's Bible, it is by definition not a Christian one. This tendency reinforces a trend with Protestantism of a sharp dualism between Law and Grace (see Luther). The OT is a religion of law, rules, and Pelagianism, while Christianity-NT is a religion of Grace and Freedom.

For the pious Jew, the Torah, the Instruction of God, the commandments are themselves freeing. It is a great joy to meditate upon your "Law" day and night. The word Law (Torah) is better translated as Instruction/Guidance.

Sometimes I will say Jewish Scriptures but that basically suffers the same two flaws as the Hebrew Bible.

The theological view I am trying to work out sees the Jewish Testament as a sourcebook that was then read by both Pharisaic Judaism who interpreted in one legitimate direction and all Judaisms today flow from that movement AND Christianity which read into the text no doubt it's own experience (so did the Pharisaic party) and therefore the Christian appropriation and reading of the (now) Old Testament is also a valid reading.

But again the key is which path one is on, recognizing the strengths and limits of each and practicing non-exclusion. Supersessionism is out as is the idea that Christians stole the Jewish texts.

So Christian theology can not go on this rant about how Judaism is a religion of Law. Both are religions that involve both Grace and Action---Other and Self Power. But it also means that not all readings into from later experiences are inherently evil, dastardly, and imperialistic. Although of course the history of Christianity is not without that element and any future theology that encourages such tendencies must be fought against in light of the Holocaust and the continued rampant anti-Semitism of our world. Even here in supposedly secular-multicultural Vancouver, BC synagogues are experiencing within the last year a serious surge in attacks on their properties. Synagogues are not (even here) open to the public, guarded 24 hours/day, and fenced off.

So I will use Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures, Jewish Testament, etc. all of which I find problematic but don't really have another word to substitute with the baggage unfortunately.