Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I'm pleased to be able to post this post by platinum member Ray Zubler. It's a recollection and a commemoration of John Shelby Spong, who many of you know as one of the great voices that spread critical knowledge of the Bible and early Christianity to broader audiences. Spong was a bishop of the Episcopal Church who nonetheless realized the deep problems posed by the Bible and traditional theological views for modern thinking people.
[00:00:27] Spong discussed these issues within the context of the christian church as a christian church leader, and so he reached a large number of christians who would pay no attention to critical scholars on the outside.
[00:00:39] Ray has here presented some very helpful reflections on him and his work.
[00:00:44] And remember, you too can present a platinum post to platinum members as a platinum yourself. Anything related to what we do works. Let me know if you're at all interested or just send us a post.
[00:00:58] Faith can never rest on perceptions that are intellectually unbelievable, wrote John Shelby Spong.
[00:01:05] It was around 2017 and I was listening to an early Saturday morning radio show named the God show, hosted by Pat McMahon on KTAR.
[00:01:15] The radio guest that morning was John Shelby Sponge and and the topic was his new book called biblical a Gentile heresy. Usually McMahon researches the books of his guests, but this particular morning he had not yet read sponges newest book. The interview went as normal and some overview of the problems of literalism and its turning away many of todays younger questioners went smoothly until after the first break when Spong came right out and said the unthinkable that his understanding of the Bible, with its undeniable jewish roots makes it totally unreasonable to believe that we should accept that Jesus was born from a virgin Mary.
[00:01:56] The birth narrative was completely misunderstood.
[00:02:00] The God show ended relatively abruptly after that statement. A quick cut to a commercial jumped to the news, but it was too late. I was already wondering how Spong, a former episcopal bishop, could claim to be a Christian and make that statement.
[00:02:15] I purchased the book and I read it and that radically changed my christian trajectory.
[00:02:21] Spong had quite an extensive time in retirement doing research and seeking better ways to counter fundamentalism.
[00:02:29] Doctor Ehrman is often seen in spongs list of references. The breakthrough for Spong was in his discovering that the Gospel of Matthew in particular is completing events of the jewish calendar year that was only left partially filled in Marks gospel marks gospel closely parallels the jewish calendar from Rosh Hashanah to Passover. Matthew expands on mark to cover the time after Passover and before Rosh Hashanah.
[00:02:54] The first example of Matthews expansion covers the seven sabbaths starting from Passover to Shavuot, Matthew uses the first two sabbaths to cover the Isa story. In Matthew, chapter 28, the end of the life of Jesus. The next five sabbaths are placed at the start of the gospel and help to stage the entire gospel narratives. The five sabbaths can be seen as one the genealogy and birth of Jesus in Matthew chapter one, verses one to 25 two the wise men in Herod and that's Matthew chapter two, verses one to 23, the Baptist and Jesus baptism that's Matthew chapter three, verses one to 23.
[00:03:36] Four the temptation of Jesus, that's Matthew chapter four, verses one to eleven and then five. The ministry begins. Matthew chapter four, verses eleven to 25.
[00:03:47] Spong's book lays out the entire list of parallels in regards to the virgin birth. Spong notes that Matthew is the first author to mention a virgin birth. Paul only mentions Jesus as a descendant of the house of David in Romans and being born of a woman and under the jewish law in Galatians. Spong believes that Matthew opted to use a virgin birth, a greek tradition, for many of their greatest heroes, but with a recognizable genealogical background and a scriptural support from Isaiah, chapter seven. To counter the charges from other Jews that Jesus was illegitimate, research the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Tosefta for other examples.
[00:04:26] Spong notes that all the women mentioned in the genealogy, Tamar Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, aka bathsheba, were compromised gentiles and not Jews. What Matthew may have really been conveying is that God can bring holiness out of any human symbol of brokenness, inadequacy, or evil.
[00:04:47] Spong argues that Matthews jewish audience would have connected the dots between all the women mentioned in his birth narrative. I would have seen the virginity as a metaphor and not a literal historical fact.
[00:04:59] The gentile audience would lack the necessary background to understand the birth narrative in some non literal manner.
[00:05:05] The bulk of Spong's biblical literalism builds upon the necessity of understanding jewish history and culture in order to unlock the literalism that has corrupted the gentile perspective on much of the New Testament's stories, I encourage further exploration into Spong's interesting, unliteralized theories. For additional insight into the gospel of John, I recommend his earlier book, the fourth Gospel Tales of a Jewish mystic.
[00:05:30] Ray Zubler is a longtime earmanblog.org member, retired it professional and musician, currently teaching applied saxophone and jazz improvisation at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He's been actively studying and researching early Christianity for the past eight years.
