Question: What is the role of authority in the OT? Jesus referred to the Pharisees as sitting on Moses' seat. Is this a precursor to the Chair of Peter? Did it carry the charism of infallibility ("Do whatever they they tell you")? Were the Pharisees just a fallible authority as they denied the divinity of Christ?
Answer:
Jesus came to win for us the right to share in the Holy Spirit of God in an intimate way, impossible to the OT people. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit was active among the OT figures. The prophetic witness was a powerful teaching tool. When Jesus described the "cathedra" (seat) of Moses, he was probably referring to that prophecy in Deuteronomy:
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren -- him you shall heed -- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, `Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, `They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ' (Deut. 18:15-18)
Similarly, the High Priest in John's Gospel was exercising this power:
But one of them, Ca'iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish." He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. (John 11:49-52)
This was indeed infallible teaching. In fact, it was INSPIRED teaching which was at a higher level than mere infallibility. But it was a direct revelation of God, therefore it was not a power given to men. Infallibility is a power that rightly belongs to men under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. In that sense, the teaching authority of the Church is greater than that of the Synagogue:
And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:19-21)
The prophetic word from God is made more sure because not only are the prophecies from God, but they are being taught by those (i.e., the Magisterium) under God's superintendence who cannot make an error.
So the situation in the NT is different and better than in the OT. In the OT period, there was a lot of direct revelations from God many of which were not written down. (The issue of the authority of the Jewish Oral traditions is one that I have not seen touched upon elsewhere, but many Catholic doctrines come from it: free will, prayers for the dead, purgatory, the anamnesis of the Passover meal, etc.) After the last of the Apostles died, there was no new PUBLIC revelation, but everything that God revealed was now understandable to men via the divine assistance. There were many things in the OT revelation which the Jews were blinded from seeing.
The Pharisees did not really deny the divinity of Christ. I would submit in fact that they knew EXACTLY who he was. I think that is the meaning of the parable of the wicked tenants:
Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons." (Matt. 21:33-41)
The vineyard here is obviously Jerusalem. The Tenants are the Pharisees. I think that they did not want the Messiah that God had sent them and so they rejected Jesus under the delusion that somehow they could do so.
There are some odd things in the Talmud. It says that God had given full authority to the Rabbis to rule Israel once He had revealed the Torah. So the Rabbis were fully empowered to ignore any further revelations from God and rule the community themselves.
Some suggested reading:
Mind by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and
The Living Covenant by Rabbi David Hartmann.
In summary, it appears that the OT authority was indeed "infallible" but of a different kind from that of the NT. In the OT, it was God acting directly. In the NT, it is God acting indirectly because men have a sharing in the divine nature which OT people lacked.
Art Sippo
The Catholic Legate