The Catholic Biblical Association of America (CBA) has elected for the first time in its 90-year history a Jewish president. Biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine, a specialist in the New Testament and a member of the association since 1988, will serve as president for the 2026-2027 term. Her appointment is particularly significant given that the organization’s statutes require its work to be carried out in accordance with Catholic Magisterium and that it provides counsel to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Levine has previously advocated for reconsidering the full proclamation of the Passion according to Saint John on Good Friday and has held positions on the contemporary application of certain biblical texts related to homosexuality that differ in some respects from Catholic moral teaching. She now intends to collaborate with U.S. bishops on biblical guidelines for preaching and catechesis, as well as to strengthen resources for clergy and religious educators.
First Jewish President of the CBA
The election took place on July 20 during the 88th annual meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association, held at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. The association later confirmed that Levine will hold the presidency for the 2026-2027 term.
Levine had served as vice president during the previous term and had previously been a consultant to the executive council and held editorial responsibilities with The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. The CBA currently identifies her as its president.
Specializing in the Gospels and the Jewish context of early Christianity, Levine was in 2019 the first Jewish scholar to teach New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. The CBA also highlights that she held three audiences with Pope Francis and her decades of work in Jewish-Christian relations.
Levine continues to practice Orthodox Judaism and has expressly stated that she does not recognize Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. At the same time, she has devoted much of her academic career to the study of the New Testament and particularly to situating the words and actions of Christ within their Jewish context.
She Proposed Changing the Good Friday Lectionary
One of Levine’s positions most relevant to her new role concerns the Passion according to Saint John, whose proclamation forms part of the Catholic liturgy on Good Friday.
In a 2023 interview with The Christian Century, the biblical scholar addressed the treatment of “the Jews” in the Fourth Gospel and argued that some of its passages may encourage hostile interpretations toward the Jewish people. When asked about possible solutions, she advocated modifying the Good Friday lectionary.
Her proposal does not involve removing the Gospel of Saint John from the lectionary. Levine specifically suggests reconsidering the full reading of the Johannine Passion during the Good Friday celebration and turning to other possibilities, such as the seven last words of Christ taken from the four Gospels.
The Catholic Church expressly rejects any collective imputation of Christ’s death to the Jewish people. Nostra aetate teaches that what happened during the Passion “cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.” The Roman liturgy, however, retains the proclamation of John 18:1–19:42 on Good Friday.
Her Positions on Texts Related to Homosexuality
Levine has also publicly developed her interpretation of biblical passages concerning homosexual relations.
In an essay published in 2022 by Outreach, she analyzed various passages from Genesis, Leviticus, the letters of Saint Paul, and Jude. Her approach does not consist simply in denying that there are biblical texts opposed to certain sexual relations between persons of the same sex. In some cases she acknowledges that such an interpretation may correspond to the historical meaning of the passage.
The difference appears when determining how those texts should be applied today. Levine maintains that establishing what a passage meant in its original context does not necessarily resolve its contemporary moral application.
“Since we do not live in the early Iron Age or the first-century Roman Empire,” she wrote, it is necessary to judge whether what was considered appropriate then continues to be so today.
The biblical scholar also considers that other elements besides the historical reconstruction of the text should be taken into account in interpreting these issues, including scientific knowledge and the experience of the persons concerned.
In the same essay she rejected as insufficient, when applied to this debate, the formula “love the sinner but hate the sin” and maintained that persons who believe they have discovered their own sexual or gender identity may feel liberated from the restrictions that certain members of the Churches seek to impose on them.
“I Am Not Interested in Questioning Doctrine”
Levine has nevertheless stated that her goal at the head of the association is not to modify the Church’s teachings.
“I am not interested in questioning doctrine,” she told EWTN News. According to her explanation, she seeks historically grounded interpretations that can also be addressed to contemporary communities.
The new president also does not consider that “everything attributed to Jesus in the New Testament comes directly from Jesus.” Among her arguments she mentions that Christ spoke Aramaic while the New Testament texts were written in Greek. Levine maintains that this historical-critical approach is compatible with Catholic doctrine and specifies that the Church’s proclamation is based on the words of Scripture as they have been received, not on a possible scholarly reconstruction prior to them.
The dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum of the Second Vatican Council teaches that the books of Scripture were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that they teach “firmly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.”
She Wants to Collaborate on Guidelines for Preaching and Catechesis
Although the Catholic Biblical Association is not governed by the Church, it maintains collaborative ties with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and offers counsel on issues such as Bible translations, faith formation, and catechesis.
Among the priorities identified by Levine are expanding international participation, developing bilingual programs, producing resources for priests and religious educators, and promoting the professional formation of biblical scholars.
The new president has also expressed a particular interest in collaborating with local churches and working with bishops to develop updated biblical guidelines for preaching based on the lectionary and for catechesis.
Her election thus places for the first time at the head of the CBA a Jewish biblical scholar, specialized for decades in the New Testament and “Jewish-Christian” relations, who has defended positions on the lectionary and on the contemporary application of certain biblical texts that differ in some respects from the liturgical discipline and moral doctrine of the Catholic Church.