Znaczenie mistycznej tradycji żydowskiej dla chrześcijańskiego rozumienia Biblii na tle nauczania kościelnego

Abstract

The question which interests us is to what extent Jewish tradition can help us follow the content of Biblical revelation. The clearest statement, which is the answer to our question, can be found in a document of the Pontifical Biblical Committee “On Interpretation of the Bible in the Church”, published in 1993. Before we come to the statement itself we will find a wide background of the searched for answer in the presentation of the Pontifical Biblical Committee, the nature of its activity and two Church documents on the anniversary of whose publication the document which interests us was written. The Church documents are: Leo XIII's encyclical Providentissimus Deus and Pius XII's Divino afflante Spirita. 1993 was the year which marked full anniversaries of these two important Church documents on researching and teaching of the Bible. On April 23,1993 at an anniversary audience the Pope delivered an address and presented the Church with a document, drawn up by the Pontifical Biblical Committee, on interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in the Church. In this document we will find an answer to the question about the legitimacy of dealing with Jewish mysticism in Bible studies. The first part of the document presents a short description of methods and formulations and points to their possibilities and limitations. Among the formulations considered to be based on Tradition the document mentions two which justify the advantages of dealing with Jewish mysticism, one referring to Jewish interpretational traditions, the other to the history of the influence of the text.