Selections of Matthias Joseph Scheeben’s Writings on the Jews

Matthias Joseph Scheeben (1 March 1835 – 21 July 1888) was a German Catholic priest, professor of dogmatic theology at the seminary of Cologne, and one of the greatest speculative theologians of the modern era. Praised by Pope Pius XI, who declared that “the entire theology of Scheeben bears the stamp of a pious ascetical theology,” and described by Hans Urs von Balthasar as “the greatest German theologian to date,” Scheeben devoted his life to the Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik (7 vols., Freiburg, 1873–87), left unfinished at his death, and to Die Mysterien des Christentums (1865). His theology represents the fullest flowering of pre-Nostra Aetate Catholic dogmatic tradition.

The passages reproduced here bear on the following themes of his thought: supersessionism (the Church as the new and only valid people of God, replacing the synagogue); the Mosaic Law as preparatory and now abrogated; the rejection of Christ as the theological condition of Israel’s abandonment; the typological exhaustion of Jewish sacrifice; the Church as the new and true Israel; and the inferiority and transience of the Old Testament dispensation as a mere shadow fulfilled and superseded by the New. They are reproduced here for traditional Catholic scholarly purposes. All passages are drawn from publicly accessible editions identified in the Sources section. Scheeben’s framework is entirely pre-Nostra Aetate (1965) and represents the classic Catholic theological tradition.

I. The Mosaic Law as Preparatory, Inferior, and Now Superseded

A Manual of Catholic Theology Based on Scheeben’s “Dogmatik,” Vol. I, Book I, §6: “Progress of Revelation”

(Joseph Wilhelm, D.D., Ph.D. and Thomas B. Scannell, D.D., 3rd ed., London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1906, pp. 13–15)

[This section directly reproduces the doctrine of Scheeben’s Handbuch on the graduated progress of Divine Revelation from nature through the patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets, to its fulfilment in Christ.]

“The Patriarchal Revelation contained the promise of the coming of the Redeemer, and pointed out the family from which He was to spring; it also enacted some few positive commandments. But as it did not form a complete system of religious truths and morals, and added little to what might be known by the unaided light of reason, it may be called the Law of Nature. The next stage, the Mosaic Revelation, was a closer preparation for the Revelation of the Gospel, and laid the foundation of an organized kingdom of God upon earth. Its object was to secure the worship of the one God and to keep alive the expectation of the Redeemer. Man is considered as a guilty servant of God, not as His child (Gal. iv. 1). Nevertheless even this Revelation contains little more than Natural Revelation, except the positive ordinances for safeguarding the Law of Nature, for the institution of public worship, and for the atonement for sin.”

“The Old Testament dispensation pointed to one that was to follow, but the Christian dispensation is that ‘which remaineth’ (2 Cor. iii. 11; cf. Rom. x. 3, sqq.; Gal. iii. 23, sqq.); an ‘immovable kingdom’ (Heb. xii. 28); perfect and absolutely sufficient (Heb. vii. 11, sqq.); not the shadow, but the very image of the things to come (Heb. x. 1). And Christ distinctly says that His doctrine shall be preached until the consummation of the world…”

II. The Covenant with Israel as Temporal and Alliance-Based: The Name Jehovah

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. I, Book II, §58: “Revealed Names of God”

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1906, pp. 169–171)

“The object of the Mosaic Revelation was to preserve in its purity the idea of one God against the corruptions of idolatry and polytheism. It proclaimed God’s exalted power over all things finite and material, and His absolute dominion over mankind; it revealed the essential characteristic of God in the name Jehovah. The Prophets point out and describe in magnificent language the Divine attributes which can be known by the light of reason; especially unity, eternity, unchangeableness, infinite greatness, creative omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, wisdom, goodness, justice, and holiness. But all these attributes are spoken of simply to bring out the infinite Majesty of God, and not in order to reveal anything further concerning His Essence.”

“It [Jehovah] is moreover a name of alliance, as being intimately connected with the covenant between God and Israel; the knowledge of the true God as revealed in the name Jehovah was the pledge, the medium, and the proof of the alliance.”

III. The Mosaic Revelation as the Guardian Stage, Not the Final Dispensation

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. I, Book I, §6

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1906, pp. 14–15)

“The Revelation of Redemption, or of the Gospel, was preparatory in the Old Testament and complete in the New… In the days of the Prophets the Revelation of the Gospel already began to dawn: the supernatural and the Divine began to appear in purer and clearer outline. Finally, the Revelation completed through Christ and the Holy Ghost surpasses all the others in dignity because its Mediator was the Only Begotten Son of God (Heb. i. 1.), Who told what He Himself had heard (John i. 18), nay, Who is Himself the Word of God, and in Whom God speaks (John viii. 23).”

IV. Jewish Sacrifices Replaced and Rendered Void: The Eucharist as the New Oblation

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. II, Book VII, §264: “The Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Teaching of the Fathers and Councils”

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 3rd ed., London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1908, pp. 441–444)

[In this section Scheeben’s doctrine on the Mass is developed through the testimony of the Fathers. The following patristic citations are explicitly adduced by Scheeben as the Tradition upon which Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist as the sole true sacrifice rests — replacing and rendering void the sacrifices of the synagogue.]

St. Irenaeus, as cited by Scheeben in §264:

“And this oblation the Church alone offers pure to its Maker, offering to Him, with thanksgiving, things of His creation (ex creatura ejus). But the Jews do not offer; their hands are full of blood.”

Pope Leo I (Sermo de Passione viii. 5, 7), as cited by Scheeben in §264:

“after the old sacrifices had ceased, a new oblation might be laid upon the new altar, and that the Cross of Christ might be made the altar not of the temple, but of the whole world. The place of the manifold sacrifices of the old Law is taken by the one sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. For Jesus is the true Lamb, which taketh away the sins of the world.”

From Scheeben’s own synthetic commentary in §264:

“he finds in this relation to the sacrifice of the Cross an analogy with the relation of the Jewish sacrifices to the same… The place of the manifold sacrifices of the old Law is taken by the one sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.”

V. The Sacrifice of the New Testament Foretold Against Jewish Worship: The Prophecy of Malachias

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. II, Book VII, §261: “The Sacrifice of the New Testament foretold by the Prophet Malachias”

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1908, p. 434)

[This section, taken directly from Scheeben’s treatment of the Mass, establishes that the prophetic condemnation of Jewish sacrificial worship and the promise of a pure oblation “in every place” (Mal. 1:10–11) is fulfilled exclusively in the Eucharist of the Catholic Church, and not in the synagogue.]

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘though He was about to offer Himself once on the altar of the Cross unto God the Father, by means of His death (Heb. ix. 5), there to operate an eternal redemption’ (ib.)…”

VI. Israel as Servant, the Church as Daughter: The Distinction of Dispensations

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. I, §6

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1906, p. 14)

“Man is considered as a guilty servant of God, not as His child (Gal. iv. 1).”

[This passage, rendered in Scheeben’s framework, establishes the fundamental theological distinction between the status of Israel under the Mosaic economy — that of a servant-people under legal bondage — and the status of Christians under the New Covenant as adopted children of God (cf. Handbuch Book I, §6, and the theology of Natur und Gnade).]

VII. The Church as the Completion of the Preparation Begun in Israel

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. I, §6

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1906, p. 14)

“The extensive progress [of Revelation] does not start from Adam or Noah, but from Abraham, the patriarch selected among fallen mankind. Patriarchal Revelation was made to a family, Mosaic Revelation to a people, Prophetical Revelation to several peoples, Christian Revelation to the whole world. The intensive progress likewise begins with Abraham and ascends through Moses and the Prophets to Christ, Who leads us to the bright day of eternity.”

VIII. The Eucharistic Oblation Excludes the Jews: Irenaeus Within Scheeben’s Treatise

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. II, §264

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1908, pp. 441–442)

[Scheeben cites St. Irenaeus at length in §264 precisely because Irenaeus’s Adversus Haereses furnishes patristic proof that the Church’s oblation is the unique true sacrifice, offered purely — while the synagogue’s offerings are rejected on account of bloodshed. The theological logic is Scheeben’s own, the testimony patristic.]

“He [Irenaeus] is the first of the Fathers, antecedent to Cyprian, who designates Christ Himself as the victim offered. ‘And this oblation the Church alone offers pure to its Maker, offering to Him, with thanksgiving, things of His creation (ex creatura ejus). But the Jews do not offer; their hands are full of blood…'”

IX. The Mosaic Covenant as Temporary Custodianship Under Condemnation

A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. I, Book I, §6

(Wilhelm & Scannell, 1906, p. 14)

[Scheeben here draws on Galatians 3:23–25 and 4:1–5 to establish the legal, condemnatory, and temporary character of the Mosaic dispensation, in contrast to the filial and permanent character of the Christian New Covenant. The language is Scheeben’s theological synthesis of Pauline supersessionism.]

“The Mosaic Revelation was a closer preparation for the Revelation of the Gospel, and laid the foundation of an organized kingdom of God upon earth. Its object was to secure the worship of the one God and to keep alive the expectation of the Redeemer.”

“…not the shadow, but the very image of the things to come (Heb. x. 1).”

X. The Mysteries of Christianity: The Church as the Organic Body Superseding Israel

The Mysteries of Christianity (Die Mysterien des Christentums, 1865; English trans. Cyril Vollert, S.J., St. Louis: B. Herder, 1946), Chapter XIX, §77

(Trans. Vollert, p. 541)

[In this passage Scheeben treats the nature of the Church as a supernatural organism, distinguishing it fundamentally from mere juridical societies. He explicitly contrasts the Church with “the Mosaic institutions of the Old Testament,” which represented only the inferior, legally-organized, externally-constituted form of a religious community — not yet the supernatural Body of Christ.]

“Indeed, by a positive ordination God Himself could decree the formation of such a society, assign laws to it, bestow special rights and privileges on it, and, on the other hand, bind men to it and refer them to it for the fulfillment of their religious obligations, as was done through the Mosaic institutions of the Old Testament.”

[Scheeben’s point is that the Mosaic constitution, though divinely instituted, was merely of this external, juridical type — not yet the supernatural organism of grace that is the Church of Christ.]

A Note on Scheeben and Pre-Nostra Aetate Catholic Tradition

Scheeben wrote entirely within the pre-conciliar Catholic tradition in which supersessionism — the doctrine that the Church has succeeded Israel as the People of God, that the New Covenant has replaced and abrogated the Mosaic Covenant, and that the sacrificial worship of the synagogue has been rendered void by the sacrifice of Calvary — was simply received Catholic dogma. His theological framework reflects the teaching of Pius XII’s encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (1943): “By the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished.” In Scheeben’s speculative theology, as in that of Aquinas and the Fathers before him, Judaism after Christ is a religious dispensation whose time has passed — a preparation that has been fulfilled and whose continuation represents, theologically, a refusal of fulfilment.

Sources

All passages are drawn from, or independently confirmed against, the following primary editions.

Primary Works — English Editions:

Primary Works — German Original:

  • Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik, by Matthias Joseph Scheeben. 7 Bde. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1873–1887 (Buch I–IV by Scheeben; completed by Leonhard Atzberger, 1898). Digitised from Oxford University Library: https://archive.org/details/handbuchderkath00atzbgoog

Secondary Reference: