Netanyahu, allies are misusing Scripture, Jesuit convert from Judaism writes in Vatican newspaper
August 08, 2025
Writing in the Vatican newspaper, a Jesuit priest who is a convert from Judaism said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “his allies, the Israeli settler movement, and those who commit acts of violence against Palestinians” misuse Scripture when they “continually draw on biblical language to justify their acts of death and destruction.”
Father David Neuhaus, SJ—formerly the Jesuit superior in the Holy Land and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem’s vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics—linked this misuse of Scripture to that of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. In the article, published on August 7, Father Neuhaus wrote:
Ben-Gurion was not a religious Jew, and his faith in God was overshadowed by his belief in the “Jewish” nation, a concept derived from his avid reading of the Bible. He also explicitly rejected the religious traditions of the Jewish people, which had developed over the centuries in the rabbinic writings collected in the Talmud ...
Ben-Gurion’s biblicism (a secular reading of the Bible used as a treasure trove of nationalist terminology and mythology) was instrumental in the early history of Zionist activity in Palestine. Although harshly criticized by religious Jewish intellectuals in Israel such as Martin Buber and Yeshayahu Leibowitz—both deeply aware of the troubling moral questions raised by Israel’s military conquests, the ethnic cleansing from Israeli territories of Palestinians, and the entrenched discrimination against Arab citizens in the State of Israel—Ben-Gurion’s version of Zionism dominated.
Father Neuhaus concluded:
Ultimately, the Bible, read with faith, love, and charity, reveals itself as the living Word of God. In Palestine/Israel today, the Bible is used to legitimize and justify wars, occupation, and discrimination. Alongside the Bible, the Qur’an, the sacred scripture of Muslims, is “mobilized” in political struggles over the fate of the Holy Land and who should govern it.
However, Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, emphasizes that “Sacred Scripture [must] be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by which it was written” (no. 12). Discerning this Spirit, including in accordance with the authentic interpretation entrusted to the Magisterium (no. 10), is therefore an essential part of reading the Bible. In essence, the Bible, read as the Word of God, teaches equality, justice, and peace, values that are in harmony with the God we come to know in the Church’s reading of the Bible.
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