Donald Senior, C.P., is President of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of ministry in the United States, where he is also a member of the faculty as Professor of New Testament. Born in Philadelphia in 1940, he is a member of the Passionist Congregation and was ordained a priest in 1967. He received his doctorate in New Testament studies from the University of Louvain in Belgium in 1972. Fr. Senior is a frequent lecturer and speaker throughout the United States and abroad, and serves on numerous boards and commissions, including the Board of Directors of William H. Sadlier, Inc. He has published extensively on biblical topics, with numerous books and articles for both scholarly and popular audiences. In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him as a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and he was reappointed in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI.

It might seem self-evident but when we are talking about Catholic principles of interpreting the Bible it is very important to be aware that we read the Bible as Christians, that is, we read the Scriptures from the vantage point of faith in Jesus Christ.

Not all readers necessarily share this same perspective when turning to the Bible. A historian might read the Scriptures only for the purpose of determining the historical circumstances that surround a book or passage in the Bible, without having any particular faith stance at all. A literary critic might study the Bible as a classical text that has had a profound influence on world culture, but the critic is not necessarily interested in the religious message of the Bible. But when we read the Bible precisely as people of faith and in the context of a community of faith such as the Church, then we are looking for the religious meaning of the Bible for our Christian faith.

This principle may not be as simple as it seems. For example, out of deference and respect for Jewish tradition, some Christian scholars prefer to speak of the "Hebrew Bible" rather than the Old Testamentbelieving that the term "old" might have the connotation of something no longer viable or important. (Some use the alternative "First Testament" and "Second Testament" in order to avoid the term "old".) While the sentiment is a good one, the problem is that, as Christians, we do not read the "Hebrew" Scriptures but the "Christian" Scriptures. Although we reverence the Old Testament Scriptures as truly inspired by God and of great significance for our life of faith, we cannot avoid reading them from the vantage point of our Christian faith. An observant Jew, for example, reads the books of what we call the Old Testament from a different, yet valid, faith perspective of their own. For them these books truly are the "Hebrew" Scriptures (although the Jewish community itself does not refer to them by this name). As the Pontifical Biblical Commission pointed out, the Jewish interpretation of their Scriptures is valid in its own right. "Both (Christian and Jewish) readings are bound up with the vision of their respective faiths, of which the readings are the result and expression"(The Jewish People and Their Scriptures in the Christian Bible, #22).

The "vision" out of which we Christians read the Bible is our firm belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, both human and divine. We believe, therefore, that for all of history God had in mind the coming of Jesus as Savior of the world. However as the Biblical Commission text went on to say, To read the Old Testament as Christians then does not mean wishing to find everywhere direct reference to Jesus and to Christian realities ( #6). The Old Testament speaks from its own historical and religious contexts and we reverence these parts of the Bible on their own terms. The beautiful description of the sacredness of creation in the opening chapters of Genesis, the searing words of the prophets about the claims of justice for the poor, the eloquent laments and prayers of praise in the psalmsall of these and more have profound meaning for us and find their place in the Christian liturgy.

This is an important point because in the past some Christian interpreters reduced the Old Testament Scriptures to simply a prefigurement of Jesus. Some even went so far as to accuse observant Jews of being spiritually obtuse for not seeing the clear indications of Christs prefigurement everywhere in their Bible. The Church today emphasizes that the Old Testament Scriptures have meaning in their own right and that it is not proper or fair that Jewish believers would be compelled to read and pray their Scriptures from a Christian perspective.

Yet, at the same time, as Christians it is perfectly valid for us to absorb these words of the Scripture and relate them to our faith in Jesus. In a sense we read the Scriptures "retrospectively" through the lens of our Christian faith. This will lead, at times, to seeing an event of Israels history or a longing of the Jewish people as a prefigurement of Jesus. Thus the Exodus which brought Israel out of slavery to a promised land prefigures the saving event of Jesus Death and Resurrection. The suffering of the servant on behalf of the people in Isaiah 53 foreshadows the redemptive suffering of Jesus himself. These readings are, in a true sense, "retrospective," as we read the Old Testament now from the vantage point of our faith in Christ.

This was already taking place in the New Testament itself. The Bible of the earliest Church was, of course, what we refer to as the "Old Testament." As the Gospels were being formed the evangelists reflected on the events of Jesus life in the light of their Scriptures: thus Jesus actions are often presented as "fulfilling" texts of the Old Testament or Jesus own words are shaped in harmony with passages of the Old Testament such as his words of lament drawn from Psalm 22 at the moment of his Death ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"). Paul, too, draws heavily on the events, symbols, and direct quotations from the Old Testament in composing his letters to his communities viewing them now in the light of his faith in Christ.
Just as it is impossible for us to understand Jesus and our Christian faith without the Old Testament so, too, is it impossible for us now to view the long history of God's pople without relating it to out faith in Christ.