Vatican affirms ‘importance’ of Old Testament

VATICAN CITY — In an authoritative document that has taken Jewish scholars by surprise, the Vatican has affirmed the “extreme importance” of the Old Testament and stated that Jews do not wait “in vain” for the Messiah.

The pronouncements are contained in a 200-page study, “The Jewish People and Their Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible,” written by the Pontifical Biblical Commission and published in Italian and French.

But the biblical commission said that Christians were mistaken in viewing the Old Testament solely as a “prophetic preparation” for the coming of Jesus. The Jewish Scriptures, it said, “occupy a place of extreme importance in the Christian Bible.”