Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes | John Shelby Spong

Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes | John Shelby Spong | Christianity that makes sense in Y2K

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Liberating the Gos...

	Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes John Shelby Spong HarperOne, 1997 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent alternative explanation to the writing of the gosp

Spong argues that the gospels, rather than being eyewitness accounts of the life and acts of Jesus, are constructions of Jesus' life based on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). In the late twentieth century, as Spong says in his prologue, it is not possible to take many of the gospel writers' events literally. But when we relate incidents and statements to events in the lives of Moses, Elijah, Abraham et. al, and verses in the psalms, we can see that the gospels are "midrashic" interpretations of Jesus' life. That is, the Jewish authors of the gospel are interpreting the life of Jesus according to their original sacred scriptures--the Hebrew Bible. That is the key to reading the gospels: they are not literal accounts of actual events, but midrashic attempts to understand the life of Jesus by connecting it to Hebrew scriptures.

Far from trying to undermine faith in Jesus, Spong says in his final chapter, he is trying to bring back into the Christian fold all those who have left because they cannot rationally accept the gospels as literal history. Spong's book resolves the apparent contradiction between faith and rationality by refering the gospels to their source material in the Hebrew Bible.

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Christianity that makes sense in Y2K

If you are hanging on to your Christian faith by a thin thread, you need this book. In this modern world, many of us can no longer hold on to the myths of the ancient world as orthodox Christian theology continues to insist we must. The God we know we see reflected in Jesus is diminished by a literal reading of the Bible. Spong offers insight into how the gospels came to be written by early Christians who were also Jews .In doing so, he allows us to see the power of the truth they point to symbolically. Though we have long since stopped believing in the literal reality of a virgin birth or skies filled with singing angels, we do not have to discard these powerful images of our faith story. Reality and truth are not necessarily the same thing. Spong's work allows us to understand the ancient texts in a way that does not insult our modern brains. For those who are determined to hold on to a literal interpretation of the gospels, this book will not change their minds, for logic plays no role in their faith. So be it. But for any one needing a new way to hear the story of the Jesus they love, this book is a godsend. I thank Bishop Spong for his work.

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Removing the Gentile filter from our reading of the Bible

Most Christians read the Gospels as Gentile scripture, unaware that the authors and the intended audience were all deeply Jewish. Bishop Spong clearly illustrates how the Gospels originated as a continuance of Hebrew scripture, how they were developed in a uniquely Jewish literary tradition, how they functioned as a part of the Jewish Sabbath worship, and finally how they fell victim to an exile among the Gentiles.

Interpreting the Gospels in this context leads the reader to many new conclusions about the early days of Christianity, and further opens the possibility that the real value of the Bible is not in its accuracy as a literal historic document.

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Interesting, but doesn't go far enough

This was a very interesting book, but after reading it I was left wondering: why was Spong afraid to follow his thesis to its logical conclusion? He shows that many if not all of the events in the life of Jesus (as told by the gospels) are drawn from the Jewish scriptures. As are most of the characters in the gospels. At the end of a long chapter on Judas, Spong writes: "When we confront the results of our study -- which reveal that all of the biblical details of Judas' life appear to have been shaped by the Hebrew scriptures... - then we ask with renewed urgency whether Judas himself could still be thought of as a literal figure of history." Mind you, the thesis of the entire book is that all of the biblical details of Jesus' life appear to have been shaped by the Hebrew scriptures as well. Shouldn't this lead us to ask, "with renewed urgency" whether Jesus himself can still be thought of as a literal figure of history? No, according to Spong -- don't even go there. But that is, for me, the inescapable conclusion of this book: the Jesus character may be just as fictional as Judas.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8

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