Portland Public Library

Biblical literalism, a gentile heresy : a journey into a new Christianity through the doorway of Matthew's gospel, John Shelby Spong

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-374) and indexes

index present

non fiction

Biblical literalism

bibliography

912382560

John Shelby Spong

a gentile heresy : a journey into a new Christianity through the doorway of Matthew's gospel

In this work, author and the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark John Shelby Spong offers a new way to look at the gospels today. Pulling back the layers of misunderstanding created over the centuries by Gentile ignorance of things Jewish, he reveals how a literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from the original intent of the Jewish authors of the gospels that it has become an act of heresy. Using the gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the New Testament's literary and liturgical roots its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition to explain how the events of Jesus's life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written. Spong makes clear that it was only after the church became fully Gentile that readers of the gospels took these to be events of history, thus distorting their essential meaning

Stating the problem, setting the stage -- Setting Jesus into the context of history -- The oral phase: Entering the tunnel of silence -- Discovering the clue that organized the synoptic gospels -- Matthew's dependency on Mark -- Genealogy and birth -- Joseph: Myth or history? -- The magi and their gifts: An original sermon? -- Herod and Pharaoh: Jesus and Moses -- The baptism of Jesus: Moses relived -- Into the wilderness: Forty days, not forty years -- Jesus' return to the symbolic Sinai -- The Lord's Prayer: Taught by Jesus or composed by the church? -- Jesus' journey from Shavuot to Rosh Hashanah -- Matthew's introduction of Jesus as a miracle worker -- Matthew's take on the work of the kingdom -- Introducing Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement -- Demystifying the unforgivable sin: Matthew's story at Yom Kippur -- The curse of atonement theology -- The symbols of Sukkoth and the food that satisfies hunger -- The beheading of John the Baptist -- Loaves and fishes, walking on water: Moses stories expanded -- Two characters, two insights -- Dedication: The return of the light of God -- The Transfiguration: A Dedication-Hanukkah story -- Introducing the journey section of Matthew's gospel -- The heart of the journey -- Apocalypse now: The final judgment -- The climactic events of the passion narrative -- Probing the passion narrative for interpretive clues -- The passion narrative as liturgy -- Easter dawns: Myth or reality? -- Matthew's call to life