Thursday, March 28, 2024

Robert Sungenis (RC) on Hebrews 8:13 and Supersessionism

  

. . . Hb 8:13’s “vanishing” of the covenant refers to when Jeremiah was writing this prophecy. That is, in 600 BC the “old covenant” was already beginning to vanish from the scene, especially since the next major event in Isarel’s history is the Babylonian captivity. It would be completely vanished when the New Covenant in Christ replaced it, which occurred at Christ’s crucifixion.

 

However, some have argued that while Hebrews 8:8-13 does indeed speak of a New Covenant, the Greek text of vr. 13 (ἐν τῷ λέγειν καινὴν πεπαλαίωκεν τὴν πρώτην· τὸ δὲ παλαιούμενον καὶ γηράσκον ἐγγὺς ἀφανισμοῦ) says that the old is near vanishing, not that it has vanished. They then note that Hebrews was written decades after the Crucifixion, drawing the anti-supersessionist conclusion that the “Old Covenant” did not “vanish away” at the Crucifixion. This explanation begs the question as to when the interlocutor thinks the “old” covenant will “vanish away.” Even if it was the case that the “old” vanishes away a few more decades after Hebrews was written, the fact is, it will have thus vanished away and thus will be revoked at that time, in the first century AD. (Robert Sungenis, Supersessionism is Irrevocable: Facing the Ambiguities, Compromises, and Heresies in Recent Catholic Documents Regarding the “Old Covenant” [State Lina, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2024], 430-31)