Sitting on the Cathedra of Moses:
Pope Benedict XVI’s view of Jesus as the New Moses

Throughout time there have been notable individuals who have contributed to society in some great way, and it is specifically for those contributions that they are known and remembered even unto modernity.  In the secular realm, Louis Pasteur is remembered for Pasteurization, Marie Curie for Radiation, and Immanuel Kant for his Categorical Imperative.  This is no less true for the Papacy.  When one ponders of the Modernist heresy one immediately recalls Pope Pius X and his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis.  The issues of artificial contraception and respect for human life will forever be linked to Pope Paul VI and his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae.  The papacy of Pope John Paul II will forever be remembered for his explorations in the Theology of the Body.  The hallmark of People Benedict XVI’s papacy will inevitably be his journeys into Covenantal Theology (Pimental 16) and, more specifically, his writings on Jesus’ salvific role as the New Moses and therefore the fulfiller of the God’s Covenant with Israel.

It is also interesting to note that Pope Benedict’s first major work in Covenantal Theology was captured in “Many Religions – One Covenant,” a compilation of homilies and writings on the subject.  One can’t help but note how Pope John Paul II’s monumental work “Theology of the Body” was compiled in such a similar fashion.

Aside from the fact that Covenantal Theology has been something that many Catholics have thought of as uniquely Protestant and having no place with Catholic theological tradition, this journey into Covenantal theology is a relatively new exploration for the Catholic hierarchy.  While Both Henri Cardinal de Lubac and Jean Cardinal Danielou have written extensively on the subject, Pope Benedict XVI is the first Pope in the modern era to bring this issue out of the academic circle and into the minds of the lay Catholic.

Before we can begin to look at Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, we must look to him as the New Moses because it is precisely to Moses that God made his promises to Israel in the Covenant at Mount Sinai to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Revised Standard Version, Ex. 19:6).  Deuteronomy proclaims “there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face” (Dt. 34:10), but all of this is about to change in the person of Jesus Christ.  This passage from Deuteronomy makes it “clear that these words do not simply refer to the institution of prophecy… but to something different and far greater:  the announcement of a new Moses” (Benedict 3).

The Book of Exodus gives us a clue to what this new Moses will entail because the Lord used to speak to the first Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11).  Pope Benedict notes that this aspect is the most important aspect of Moses in his relationship to Israel.  It is this that is “the only possible springboard for his works; this was the only possible source of the Law that was to show Israel its path through history” (Benedict 4).     It is this characteristic of speaking to God face to face that Benedict finds so important of Moses.  This is not only because it was something that no one had ever been allowed to do before with God, but because it is something that Jesus himself does in an intimate way.  Not only does Christ himself talk to the Father as a friend, but he talks to the Father as a Son talks to a Father – a way of speaking that can only be accomplished by this close intimate bond (Mk. 14:32-36).

Moses speaking to God as a friend isn’t the extent of the relationship Moses wants.  He asks God: “I beg you, show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18), but we see that God refuses what Moses asks and tells him “You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live… and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:20-23).  What is happening here is something of much greater importance of God simply refusing to show his face:   “The promise of a ‘prophet like me’ thus implicitly contains an even greater expectation: that the last prophet, the new Moses, will be granted what was refused to the first one – a real, immediate vision of the face of God, and thus the ability to speak entirely from seeing, not just from looking at God’s back” (Benedict 5-6).

Now we have the real key as to what the new Moses will be able to do - He will speak to God face to face like no other prophet has been able to do before.  While Jesus indeed fulfills the promise or what the new Moses is to be, He goes beyond that which was expected.  Not only does Jesus speak to God face to face, He is the very presence of God himself.  Those who look upon him, look upon the face of God incarnate.  While previously no one could see the face of the Father, in the person of Jesus they can look upon the face of the Son.

Pope Benedict, in referring to the Catechism, says: “the special mission of Jesus [is his] fidelity to the Law” (Ratzinger 31).  He continues "This is seen clearly in the following passage:  the ‘principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees.  By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus’ time to an extreme religious zeal.  This zeal, were it not to lapse into ‘hypocritical’ casuistry, could only prepare the people for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.” (Ratzinger 31).

This insistence that the One who would come to fulfill the law would be subject to it is one of particular importance for Matthew the Evangelist because of the fact that his message would have been aimed primary at the Jewish people of Israel.  Because of this, it is of no surprise that Matthew accepts and extensively pursues the expectation of Jesus as the new Moses.  This Matthean message doesn’t escape the notice of Benedict.

 Pope Benedict  expounds that  “Matthew puts together a picture of Jesus as the new Moses in precisely the profound sense that we saw earlier in connection with the promise of a new prophet given in the Book of Deuteronomy” (Benedict 65).  In Matthew we see that Jesus in “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him.  And he opened his mouth and taught them…” (Mt. 5:1-2).

 For Benedict, Jesus sitting down is a sign of his authority as teacher.  He takes his seat “on the cathedra of the mountain” (Benedict  65).   It is this image of Christ sitting down on the chair of teaching authority that, for Benedict, is clearly a sign of Christ’s presence as the New Moses.   He says "Later on he will speak of rabbis who sit in the cathedra – the chair – of Moses and so have authority; for that reason their teaching must be listened to and accepted, even though their lives contradict it, even though they themselves are not authority, but receive authority from another.  Jesus takes his seat on the cathedra as the teacher of Israel and as the teacher of people everywhere… what counts from now on is hearing and following, not lineage” (Benedict 65-66).

Not only does Jesus sit on the cathedra of Moses but “he sits there as the greater Moses, who broadens the Covenant to include all nations” (Benedict 66).  So now not only do we have Jesus coming as a new Moses to fulfill the prophecy to Israel that God would make it a great nation, through Christ he extends this promise to all the Nations making the salvific purpose of Jesus not one of a particular people, but for all people – Jew and Gentile alike.

Recalling the earlier scene in Matthew of Jesus speaking and teaching on the mountain, Pope Benedict takes note of this and says that “the very fact that it is the scene of Jesus’ preaching makes it… the new Sinai” (Benedict 66).  This obviously recalls the place where God gave to Moses the Decalogue.  If Jesus is indeed to be the new Moses, he, like Moses, must also bring a Law to the people whenever he comes from the mountain.   The new Law of Jesus is proclaimed in the Scriptures as the Sermon on the Mount, which Benedict describes as the “New Torah” (68).  However this New Torah is subdivided into two separate teachings:  The Beatitudes and The Torah of the Messiah.  This “Torah” could only be delivered by Christ “by entering into the divine darkness on the mountain” and “presupposes his entering into communion with the Father” (Benedict 68). 

Benedict notes that Jesus begins his teaching of the beatitudes by noting that he: “always presupposed the validity of the Ten Commandments.”  (Benedict 70).  As a Jew, how could he not?  This is clear in Matthew, who recalls Christ’s words “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.  For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5:17-18).  It is clear that Christ has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill all that has been prophesied.  Necessarily, the question arises - What do the Beatitudes have in relation to the New Law that Christ comes to bring about?  For Benedict, the Beatitudes empower each individual believer with a mission.  He notes "The Beatitudes display the mystery of Christ himself, and they call us into communion with him.  But precisely because of their hidden Christological character, the beatitudes are also a road map for the Church which recognizes in them the model of what she herself should be.  They are directions for discipleship, directions that concern every individual, even though – according to the variety of callings –they do so differently for each person." (Benedict  74)

This is precisely the message of the Beatitudes - they call Christians to live the New Commandment, the mandatum of the

Last Supper “Love one another; even as I have loved you” (Jn. 13:34).  Instinctively we also recall St. Matthew’s Gospel:
And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandment depend all the law and the prophets (Mt. 22:37-40). 

It is specifically the Sermon on the Mount that points to the fact that Jesus Christ is the new Moses.  Benedict points to examples, such as the third beatitude in which Matthew says “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt. 5:5).  This beatitude directly points back to God’s first Covenant with Abraham in which Abraham makes a Land Oath with God (80).  In the seventh Beatitude, Matthew tells us “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt. 5:9).  This passage clearly reminds us of what Israel was originally called to be – God’s people.  For Benedict “the seventh Beatitude thus invites us to be and do what the Son does, so that we ourselves may become ‘sons of God’ (Benedict  85).  Here Christ is telling us precisely what we must do for us to become what Israel was meant to have been in the Old Covenant – God’s sons!

The second part of the Sermon on the Mount is what Benedict refers to as “The Torah of the Messiah” (Benedict  100).  This Torah is the new law, which as Moses brought down from Sinai, Christ also brings down from the mountain.  This new law “is totally new and different – but it is precisely by being such that it fulfills the Torah of Moses” (Benedict  100).  In this law, we no longer find salvation being bound to being a member of a nation but rather the central focus is “communion with Jesus Christ, who ‘spiritualizes’ the Law and in doing so makes it the path to life for all” (Benedict  101).  With the establishment of this new Torah, we now have a true universal direction towards holiness.  Jesus’ fulfillment of the Torah of Moses is made clear in a manner of ways, but most especially in Jesus’ saying to the crowds “It was said to them of old…but I say to you..” (qtd. Benedict  102).  Note here that Jesus uses the form “I say to you…” and not “thus says the Lord” as the prophets of old did.  Jesus establishes his new Torah on his own authority and not on the authority of another – a clear indication of his divinity and messianic mission.  Benedict notes this speaking with authority as something that alarms the people precisely because he speaks with the authority of God (Benedict  102-103).

A major point of concern for those who would accept the teaching of Jesus was his teaching concerning the Sabbath.  For the Jews, the Sabbath observance was something that was done meticulously and scrupulously (Benedict  106).  In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus makes his teaching concerning the Sabbath known saying “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27).  What Jesus is saying here is something of great concern, especially given the fact that the Sabbath observance was an essential part of the Covenantal bond.  For the strictly observant Jews, it would seem as though Jesus is rebelling against the Covenant and the very sign of the Covenantal bond that God has with his Chosen people.  Jesus continued with His teaching by saying “For the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath” (Mk. 2:28). 

Christ takes the authority as the “Son of Man” to essentially tell the Jews that man is able enough to know how to keep Holy the Sabbath day without being a slave to it.    Benedict, in quoting Jacob Neusner, says “He [Jesus] and his disciples may do on the Sabbath what they do because they stand in place of the priests in the Temple; the holy place has shifted, now being formed by the circle made up of the master and his disciples” (qtd. Benedict  108).  If Christ and his Apostles now stand in place of the priests of the Temple, it is apparent that Christ has established a priesthood, something that King David wanted to restore for Israel.  Not only is Christ establishing a ministerial priesthood but He is establishing priesthood in which all believers and members of the Covenant share in – the royal priesthood.

Now that we have seen that Jesus is indeed the new Moses who comes and establishes a new Law, he must now fulfill God’s promise to Israel.  He does this through the establishment of the Kingdom of God made present in our midst.

The central theme of the Gospels is found in one message – “The Kingdom of God is at hand” (Benedict  47).  Benedict notes that this phrase “Kingdom of God” is found in the New Testament 122 times with 99 of those times being found in the Synoptic Gospels (Benedict  47).  To fully experience the Kingdom of God, we have to fully understand what the Kingdom is.  First we must note that Benedict regards the phrase “Kingdom of God” as inadequate because God is acting here and now.  Because of this, he says it is better to speak of “God’s being-Lord, of his Lordship (Benedict 56).  Though inadequate, this term will have to suffice, for even Benedict continues to use it throughout his writings.   If we look to the writings of the Early Church Fathers for their reflections of the Kingdom, we see that there is a tripartite understanding present:   Christological, Mystical, and Ecclesiastical.

The first dimension, the Christological, can be found in the writings of Origen, whom Benedict says thought of Jesus as the Kingdom made present in his very person (Benedict  49).  Benedict notes that, for Origen, “the Kingdom is not a thing; it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kings.  It is a person, it is he” (Benedict  49).  If we accept Origen’s interpretation of the Kingdom, then we cannot help but see the Christological dimension for the Kingdom is inherently bound up in Christ’s messianic identity. 

The second dimension is one that is mystical.  Benedict reminds us that it is in this interpretation of the Kingdom of God “that sees man’s interiority as the essential location of the Kingdom of God” (Benedict  49).  Again, we can look to the writings of Origen for a clear explanation of this dimension.  In his Treatise on Prayer he says:
Those who pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God pray without any doubt for the Kingdom of God that they contain in themselves, and they pray that this Kingdom might bear fruit and attain its fullness.  For in every holy man it is God who reigns [exercises dominion, in the Kingdom of God]…. So if we want God to reign in us [The Kingdom to be in us], then sin must not be allowed in any way to reign in our mortal body (qtd. Benedict  50).

For Origen, the Kingdom of God is clearly something that is located within oneself, something that is internalized and which is expressed outwardly (Benedict  50).

The third dimension, and the one which Benedict suspects has dominated the Church’s understanding of the Kingdom more than any of the others, is that which is focused on the Church – the ecclesiastical.  While Benedict does note that the Christological and the mystical dimensions have never completely disappeared from the understanding of the Kingdom, “nineteenth and earth-twentieth century theology did tend to speak of the Church as the Kingdom of God on earth; the Church was regarded as the actual presence of the Kingdom within history” (Benedict  50).  It is this dimension which has caused many different interpretations of what Jesus came to do and not do. 

Benedict shows us that some have said that Jesus came to focus on the individual rather than the community, or morality rather than rituality (Benedict 52).  Still others insist that “the Kingdom of God… must therefore be understood as strictly referring to the end times” (Benedict  52).  Through all the years of speculation of what the Kingdom of God is, Benedict tells us the answer is one of simplicity.  He says:

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting.  He is telling us:  ‘God exists’ and ‘God is really God’… the new and totally specific thing about this message is that he is telling us: God is acting now – this is the hour when God is showing himself in history as its Lord” (Benedict  55-56).

Therefore the Kingdom is not merely something that is to come but is rather, as the evangelists tell us, something that “has come upon you” (Mt.12:28) and something “in your midst” (Lk. 17:21).  Benedict, referring to the evangelists, tells us “these words express a process of coming that has already begun and extends over the whole of history” (Benedict  58).

Jesus expressions of the Kingdom come about through various ways but are most explicitly explained in the parables, as Benedict notes "It is like a grain of mustard, the tiniest of all seeds.  It is like a leaven, a small quantity in comparison to the whole mass of the dough, yet decisively important for what becomes of the dough.  It is compared again and again to the seed that is planted in the field of the world, where it meets various fates…" (Benedict  58).

These are only a few examples that Jesus gives to explain the Kingdom of God.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees about this Kingdom which he speaks about and when it is coming.  Jesus intently responds “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed… for behold the Kingdom of God is in your midst” (Lk.17:20-21).  Jesus clearly and undoubtedly tells the Pharisees in no uncertain terms that they are missing the point – he is the Messiah, the one who has come to fulfill God’s promise to Israel!  He comes to offer Divine Sonship and does so through his Messianic office by making the Kingdom of God present in the here and now, not something merely to be looked forward to in the future.  He makes the Kingdom of God present to all, not merely to the Nation of Israel but to all who hear and believe.  Pope Benedict explains this best when he says “the new proximity of the Kingdom of which Jesus speaks – the distinguishing feature of his message – is to be found in Jesus himself” (Benedict  60).

The final piece of the Messianic puzzle is found in who Jesus really is.  Is this Jesus character, who claims he comes to make the Kingdom of God present, who fulfills all that Moses prefigured, simply a prophet or is he much more than that?

Pope Benedict remarks that Jesus is “completely one with his office [the messianic office]; his task and his person are totally inseparable from each other. It was thus right for his task to become part of his name.  Hence Jesus is referred to as “Jesus Christ” and not “Jesus the Christ” (Benedict  319). His office as the Messiah is intrinsic to whom he is – it is his sole mission here on earth.

Jesus is referred to by various titles – Son of God and Son of Man.  Though these titles have an important significance in the life and Mission of Jesus, Benedict notes that the title “Son of Man” is used by the prophet Daniel to “represent the coming kingdom of salvation” (Benedict  327).  Again, this very title indicates that Jesus is indeed the one who was prefigured to come.  This title is also used in Matthew’s Gospel:  “So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven (Mt. 10:32).  Benedict notes that the term “Son of Man” is missing but this lack of the term “makes even clearer the identity of the earthly Jesus with the judge who is to come (Benedict  329).
 

In the Gospel account of Jesus with the paralytic, his identity becomes even clearer.  Jesus says to the paralytic “Child, your sins are forgiven” (Mk. 2:5). Something that Benedict notes belongs to God alone for only God can forgive sins.  Benedict continues “If Jesus ascribes this authority to the Son of Man, then he is claiming to possess the dignity of God himself and to act on that basis” (Benedict  331).

Not only is Jesus one who comes to fulfill, he now claims the authority of God upon himself.  Now he is not just claiming to be the Son of Man, but the Son of God himself.  If Christ comes to fulfill Divine Sonship, how better to do that than to be the Divine Son par excellence?

Benedict recalls the words of second Samuel “I will raise up for your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish my kingdom… I will be his father, and he shall be my son.  When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him… but I will not take my merciful love from him” (2 Sam. 7:12).  This particular passage means three things to Pope Benedict "Israel’s privileged status as God’s firstborn son is personified in the king; he embodies the dignity of Israel in person.  Secondly, this means that the ancient royal ideology, the myth of divine begetting, is discarded and replaced by the theology of election. ‘Begetting’ consists in election… Thirdly, however, it becomes apparent that the promise of dominion over the nations – a promise taken over from the great kings of the East – is out of all proportion to the actual reality of the king on Mount Zion” (Benedict  336-337).

He then points to St. Paul’s words “What God promised to the father, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee’” (qtd. Benedict  337).  Benedict makes the strong assumption that what is presented here is what the Apostles themselves would have preached to the Jewish people (Benedict  337).

The final title we see of Jesus is the ancient use of “I Am.”, the title by which God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14.  This title is seen used whenever Christ disputes with the Jews in the scriptures such as in the Gospel of John.  In John 7 they are arguing amongst themselves about whether Jesus is the prophet that is to come because he says he can give them living water.  Immediately following this Jesus tells them “I told you that you would die in your sins unless you believe that I am he” (Jn. 8:24).  So now we have Jesus who has gone from claiming to be Son of Man, to the Son of God, and now using the title of the divine himself – I Am.  Jesus has committed the ultimate sin in the eyes of the Jewish people; he has claimed equality with God!  We now have a priest, prophet, and king who comes among us, not as man but as the God-Man.

In conclusion, for Pope Benedict, it is Jesus’ coming as the new Moses that is the most important of any of the other figures he fulfils of the Old Testament.  He could focus on Christ as the new Adam, or the new David, but he has chosen to focus on this Mosaic fulfillment in almost all of his writings on the subject of Covenant.

Jesus is indeed the New Moses primarily because he sees God face to face, something previously deprived to Moses.  Though there are many details in both the lives of Jesus and Moses that parallel one another, it is this aspect that is the key for Benedict’s understanding of Jesus as the fulfillment of that which was promised to Israel.  Christ comes as the Son of God, the Son of Man, and even uses the name that God using in revealing himself to Moses – I am.

Jesus’ identity of who he is cannot be separated from his coming as the great Messiah.  His message to us – the Beatitudes and the Torah of the Messiah – come to us in the same fashion as the Decalogue came to Moses – from a mountain top.  This new law is focused not on being a slave to the Sabbath, but on living a life of morality and charity as laid out in the Beatitudes.

Jesus’ primary purpose is to fulfill all that had been promised from of Old.  He makes known to his people that the Kingdom of God isn’t merely something to be looked forward to, but rather is something that is present in the here and now primarily through the sacramental life of the Church.  For Benedict, this is what he came to bring about and what he came to fulfill.  It is only through grasping this that we can come to understand who Jesus of Nazareth really is.

Works Cited

Benedict XVI, Pope.  Jesus of Nazareth.  Trans. Adrian J. Walker. New York:  Doubleday, 2007.

Pimental, Stephen.  “The Master Key:  Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Covenant.” Homiletic  and Pastoral Review.  Oct. 2007: 16-20.

Ratzinger, Joseph.  Many Religions – One Covenant .  Trans. Graham Harrison. San Francisco:   Ignatius Press, 1998.

The Revised Standard Version Bible.  2nd ed.  San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 2005.