Cannot Separate New Testament From the Old

23 May 2026  Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter

“Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews.” (Acts 28:17)

Paul never thought he was starting a new religion. He thought he was fulfilling an old one.

It is why, wherever he went, he always went to the synagogue first, proclaiming there first how the the Kingdom of God had arrived in Jesus, the Messiah. It is why the Gentiles he went to first were the “God-fearers,” who were already associated with the synagogues because they respected the monotheism and moral vigor of the Jews.

It is why, before he’d been in Rome three whole days, Paul called together the leaders of the local synagogue and proclaimed Jesus to them. It is why, for a very long time, the Romans couldn’t tell the difference between a Christian and a Jew – Christians like Paul didn’t think there was a difference.

Paul didn’t think he was starting a new religion, and neither should we. Half of the readings at every Mass come from the Old Testament, and at least half of the New Testament is unintelligible apart from the Old. We can’t understand the meaning of the word “Christ” apart from the meaning of “Messiah”

Paul didn’t think he was starting a new religion. So what happened? How did Christianity and Judaism get separated?

Some of it has to do with the Jewish War of A.D. 66-70. The Romans imposed a punitive tax on Jews worldwide after the war, and Christians claimed that since they hadn’t rebelled, they shouldn’t have to pay the tax. This came as something of a surprise to the Romans, who up till then had thought Christians were just another sect of Jews. The Romans began to think that maybe Christians were a new religion, and Romans didn’t like new religions – they thought them just a cover for sedition, and by the early second century persecution of Christians began to get serious.

But for all of Paul’s lifetime nobody thought that Christianity and Judaism could be separated. That’s because they can’t be separated. Even now. Especially now.

To understand Jesus the Savior, it is first necessary to understand Jesus the Rabbi. The very first word that any human ever said to the Risen Jesus was “Rabboni,” which means, My Rabbi (cf. John 20:16). Jesus the Rabbi taught that it was exactly the right instinct to believe that salvation requires fulfillment of the entire Law of Moses – all of the original Ten Commandments, all of the 613 mitzvot, additional commandments implied by the original Ten. It is still true that salvation doesn’t happen without that. The problem, Paul taught, is that we can’t do it, not even when we are at our best and trying our hardest (cf. Romans 7:24-25). So if we are ever going to be saved, Someone else will have to satisfy the requirements of the Law on our behalf, and that, Paul said, is what happened on the Cross – God Himself, in the person of Jesus the Messiah, satisfied the whole Law on our behalf, and in Him we now have access to the whole life of God. Jesus the Rabbi prayed the Psalm, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Jesus the Savior taught what still reads like a Psalm: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Paul didn’t think he was starting a new religion, and neither should we. Half of the readings at every Mass come from the Old Testament, and at least half of the New Testament is unintelligible apart from the Old. We can’t understand the meaning of the word “Christ” apart from the meaning of “Messiah,” and the oldest prayer of the Jews, the Shema, still obligates us, the same as all the other sons and daughters of Abraham: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4).