Posted on 08/19/2026 5:34:13 PM PDT by ebb tide
On July 20, at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, the 88th Annual Meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA) elected Amy-Jill Levine, 70, as president for 2026–2027.
She is the first Jewish president in the CBA’s history.
Founded in 1936, the CBA is an independent association with longstanding institutional ties to the U.S. bishops. Its constitution says it pursues biblical scholarship “in conformity with the teaching of the magisterium of the Catholic Church.”
Levine is a New Testament scholar and is a longtime member of the CBA. In spring 2019, she became the first Jewish scholar to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute. She has also had three audiences with Pope Francis.
In a sermon at Washington National Cathedral on March 7, 2021, Levine said: “I’m a Jew. I don’t worship Jesus as Lord and Savior.”
"Lectionary Revision Is Only A Start"
In an interview published by The Christian Century in June 2023, Levine describes parts of the Gospel of John as capable of promoting “Jew-hatred”, “Already the lectionary omits many of the more problematic verses, such as John 8:44, where Jesus says to the Jews, ‘You are from your father the devil.’”
Concerning Good Friday, she said: “In the Christian tradition, not every biblical text is or needs to be proclaimed to the congregation. In the case of Good Friday, the best solution would be to change the lectionary.”
The Church should reconsider to read the whole Passion of John, suggests using the Seven Last Words drawn from all four Gospels.
She admits that “lectionary revision is only a start.”
Remove Anything Against Homosexuality
In an essay published by Outreach on September 12, 2022, entitled “How to read the Bible’s ‘clobber passages’ on homosexuality,” Levine wrote: “Anything that prevents such love needs to be questioned, if not eliminated. Not all passages are of equal import.”
She also wrote: “Because we do not live in the early Iron Age or in the first-century Roman empire, we must judge whether what was appropriate then is appropriate now.”
In the same 2022 essay, Levine wrote concerning homosexuals: “For people who have found their own gender or sexual identity, and who know what is true to them and for them, that truth sets them free from the constraints some church people would put on them.”
She also rejects “love the sinner but hate the sin” as unhelpful in this context.
As CBA president, Levine has said that she would like to provide the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with guidelines on biblical interpretation for Catholic-school textbooks and catechesis and, if possible, recommendations for a revised lectionary.
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As CBA president, Levine has said that she would like to provide the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with guidelines on biblical interpretation for Catholic-school textbooks and catechesis and, if possible, recommendations for a revised lectionary.
Founded in 1936, the CBA is an independent association with longstanding institutional ties to the U.S. bishops. Its constitution says it pursues biblical scholarship “in conformity with the teaching of the magisterium of the Catholic Church.”
It'll be interesting when the next "bible" of the synodal USCBB comes out.
Don't toss your Douay-Rheims bibles!
I heartily recommend that the USCCB not listen to this person, and more so , p,ease remove her from her post. She is not worthy.
Ok, I’m not Catholic, but for crying out loud! What is wrong with the Catholic Church that they would hire someone like this? I don’t agree with a lot of Catholicism, but at least they believe in the Deity of Jesus. This woman has the spirit of antiChrist.
Wow, that’s crazy.
How far they have fallen. One of the things that I have respected in the Catholic Church is tradition. This is just another chunk of the wall falling to pieces. Professing themselves to be wise, they’ve become fools.
Trent finished off St Paul, so St. John was only a matter of time.
I feel ill.
This organization is not the Catholic Church
It does not dictate to the USCCB
It calls itself Catholic. Period
“The Catholic Biblical Association of America (CBA) invite applications for the annual CBA’s Emerging Scholars Fellowship. This Fellowship is a graduate student award given to four emerging scholars who show promise and appear likely to make significant contributions to the field of Biblical studies”
I’ve been Catholic my whole life. Catholic schools. Family. Ancestors. Friends
I’ve never heard of this group.
And they are simply not the Catholic Church, whoever they are
“For over 80 years, The Catholic Biblical Association of America has promoted, within a context of faith, scholarly study in Scripture and related fields through meetings of the association, publications, and support to those engaged in such studies.“
Don’t underestimate the influence these people have with a hierarchy that is loaded with agnostic, decadent homosexuals.This woman will do as much harm as she can.
I didn’t say she wouldn’t try to do harm
I said this isn’t the Church and this organization has no authority, in response to assertions of the same
They are obviously, and by definition, Catholic in name only.
That’s all
she would like to provide the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with guidelines on biblical interpretation
It's about time SOMEbody took the lead on this.
Same for me.
I haven’t heard of them either, but I have heard of the USCCB.
Are the USCCB reliable Catholics, meaning, is traditional Catholicism allowed there?
I am a very traditional Catholic. I enjoy the Latin Mass.
Sometimes, I think our bishops are confused.
The USCCB is also not the Church and it has no authority.
And FYI:
The official English translation used for the liturgy (Mass) in the United States is the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), overseen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and developed in cooperation with the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA).
I’ve been Catholic my whole life. Catholic schools. Family. Ancestors. Friends
Same with me; but I had never heard of the "synodal church" until five years ago.
As a Catholic I DO NOT recognize the authority of the Pope or the ‘’Princes of The Vatican’’.
The ONLY Pope this world ever had that was worthy of ‘’the shoes of the fisherman was John Paul the 2nd. I recognize the Trinity Of Christ
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
This current pope can go f himself.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
That’s in the Hebrew Bible as well.
“Same for me.
I haven’t heard of them either, but I have heard of the USCCB.
Are the USCCB reliable Catholics, meaning, is traditional Catholicism allowed there?”
This discussion and my comments are strictly about this Bible organization calling itself catholic
If you want to take this discussion to an area, or areas, that have nothing to do with this article, please find someone willing to participate. Not me.
Why the deflection?
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