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XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 5-26 October 2008 - Message to the people of God (extract on the Bible and the relations with the Jews)

Synodus of Bishops. XII Ordinary General Assembly
Vaticano (2008/10/24)

14. Along the roads of the world, the divine word generates for us Christians an equally intense encounter with the Jewish people, who are intimately bound through the common recognition and love for the Scripture of the Old Testament and because from Israel “so far as physical descent is concerned, came Christ” (Rm 9:5). Every page of the Jewish Scriptures enlighten the mystery of God and of man. They are treasures of reflection and morality, an outline of the long itinerary of the history of salvation to its integral fulfillment, and illustrate with vigor the incarnation of the divine word in human events. They allow us to fully understand the figure of Christ, who declared “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). These are a way of dialogue with the chosen people, that has received from God "the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises" (Rm 9:4 New American Bible), and they allow us to enrich our interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures with the fruitful resources of the Jewish exegetical tradition.