What is the Christian Church’s attitude towards Jewish tradition?

From the Apostolic age, the Christian Church did not neglect the living traditions of the Jews. She refused those traditions that opposed the word of God, and accepted the rest after giving them a Christian flavor, that they might serve the new faith. Here are some examples of the influence of these traditions on early Christianity:

• a. In his epistle, St. Jude quotes from ancient tradition the dispute between the Archangel Michael and the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9), a prophecy of Enoch (Jude 14, 15), and the names of “Jannes and Jambres” (2 Tim. 3:8), who opposed Moses. The Book of Revelation mentions the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel that they might eat food sacrificed to idols (Rev. 2:14–15) which was also sourced from an ancient tradition.

• b. The early Fathers were influenced by Jewish tradition. St. Justin was in contact with the Jew Trypho and Origen consulted rabbis and borrowed some interpretations from them. Syrian literature in particular absorbed Jewish Aggadah , notably Eusebius of Emesa and St. Ephrem.

259 Mishnah, Sabbath 7.1f.

260 For more details, see Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Christ in the Eucharist , 2nd ed. (Sporting, Alexandria: St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, 1973): pp. 188–191.

• c. We borrowed many liturgical texts that are in harmony with our faith from the Jewish tradition.²⁶¹

• d. The Didache (“The Lord’s Teaching to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles”) bears a Jewish character (a treatise on the two ways).