[wideawake]

Grumpster contributes an important consideration: the Christian Church is the spiritual Israel just as the Jewish people are the physical Israel.

Yet another interpretation might be that the "dry bones" are a reference to the desiccation of Jewish spiritual life under the Pharisees, whom Christ referred to as "whited sepulchres . . . within full of dead men's bones". There is no necessary connection with the Holocaust. The resuscitation of Israel could have been accomplished by the establishment of the New Jerusalem - the Christian Church, called by St. Augustine "the City of God".

This conversation is becoming more interesting and hopefully, more fruitful.

[Campion]

the Jewish people are the physical Israel.

One twelfth of the physical Israel, or maybe one sixth (since Judea was populated by the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and part of Levi).

Scott Hahn points out that, when St. Paul says in Romans that "the Gospel will be preached to the Gentiles, and thus all Israel will be saved" he means precisely that "all Israel" is irreparably mingled with the Gentiles, and so it is precisely be bringing the Gentiles into the Church that "all Israel" is reunited as the one People of God.

[grumpster-dumpster]

"This conversation is becoming more interesting and hopefully, more fruitful."

I agree! Thank you for the complement in your reply.