supersessionistn.adj.
/ˌsuːpəˈsɛʃn̩ɪst/, /ˌsuːpəˈsɛʃənɪst/, /ˌsjuːpəˈsɛʃn̩ɪst/, /ˌsjuːpəˈsɛʃənɪst/, U.S. /ˌsupərˈsɛʃənəst/ A. n.† 1. A person who advocates the removal of another from an office or position of authority, and considers himself or herself a suitable replacement. Cf. supersession n. 3. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1861 Knickerbocker Oct. 283 They grumble right fiercely..some hoping to frighten the Departments..and the Administration..into grinding axes for them, while others are led on by mere vanity or the hope of leading... The battle was lost; but the Grumblers and Supersessionists are not yet silent.
2. Theology. A person who believes in supersessionism.
ΚΠ
1982 F. H. Littell in Papers presented to Internat. Symp. Judaism & Christianity & Impact National Socialism (Hist. Soc. Israel) 465 To the supercessionist, both the Holocaust and a restored Israel are unintelligible.
1985 Horizons Spring 13 Contemporary scholarship has made it clear that Paul was not a supercessionist, although just exactly how to understand his position continues to challenge exegetical ingenuity.
1993 J. D. Levenson Hebrew Bible, Old Test., & Hist. Crit. i. 23 Jesus becomes a link in the chain of prophets that culminated in Muhammad (the supersessionists superseded!).
2004 J. Doukhan Myst. of Israel 25 Supersessionists have traditionally understood the expression ‘Israel of God’ in this passage as referring to the Gentile Christians, implying that the Christian church had taken the place of the Jewish people as ‘the true spiritual Israel’.
B. adj.
Theology. Of or relating to supersessionism or supersessionists.
ΚΠ
1974 Jrnl. Amer. Acad. Relig. 42 454 A church in vast apostasy, involved not only in the murder of Jews but also of God through his people, still linked to a supersessionist theology that bears the genocidal germ.
1989 D. Ellenson in J. Hick & E. S. Meltzer Three Faiths One God ii. 61 Unfortunately..the Christology of the New Testament as presented in this chapter appears logically to entail a supersessionist sense of triumphalism vis-à-vis Judaism.
1999 L. N. Harder Obed., Suspicion & Gospel of Mark ii. 38 This demotion of the Old Testament has promoted a supersessionist approach to the Jewish people, this taking away their dignity as a unique people of God with their own particular relationship to their Hebrew Scriptures.
2011 P. Ochs Another Reformation ii. 61 Supersessionist Christians have for centuries misinterpreted rabbinic law as a positive instrument of ‘justification’ rather than as a ‘fence’.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1861