Liberating the Gospels

In his boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong argues for an interpretation of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish texts. While many Christian interpreters see the Gospels as addressing an audience primarily composed of Greek Gentiles, Spong holds a different opinion. He powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus should be placed in a Jewish context, insomuch as the early Christians sprang from a Jewish background that stressed the midrashic, or teaching, tale.

Spong argues that the tales of Jesus’s life from the New Testament are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. According to Spong, by not understanding the Jewish source of the Gospels, we lose some of the richness of the meaning in the texts. This remarkable discovery, while sure to incite controversy, brings us greater understanding of how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. As a leading spokesperson for an open, scholarly and progressive Christianity, Bishop Spong has taught at Harvard and at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His books include A New Christianity for a New World, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Resurrection: Myth or Reality?, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and his autobiography, Here I Stand.

“Bishop Spong’s work is a significant accomplishment.”

- Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University