Jewish Book or Church Scripture? The Struggle for the Old Testament in Interwar Romania

Abstract

In the discussion of the 'Jewish problem' in Romania during the interwar period, the Old Testament did not escape attention and was labelled as a 'Jewish book.' The leading voice of that view was the anti-Semitic politician A. C. Cuza. Through his lectures, speeches and publications, Cuza demanded the abolishment of the Old Testament from both the Church and religious instruction. Intensive criticism of A. C. Cuza's theses came from several Romanian Orthodox theologians and priests (Nicolae Neaga, Ioan Popescu Mălăiești, Iuliu Scriban, Petre Chiricuță, Gheorghe Ghia), who mainly defended the Old Testament as the Holy Book of the Church. The purpose of this paper is to present these different points of view on the Old Testament, including the problematic arguments sometimes used by theologians. Some of them made a sharp distinction between the biblical Israelites and modern Jews, stating that criticism of contemporary Judaism was indeed justified.