The Origins of the Bible, Part XXVIII: The Chronicler — Final Chapter of the Old Testament

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 23 2009

The Old Testament, as we Christians organize it, closes in the post-exile period of Jewish history. That would date its final works in the mid to late 300s BCE. …

The Origins of the Bible, Part XXVI: The Wisdom Literature

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 8 2009

Four books of the Old Testament are generally regarded as being the constituent parts of what has been called “Wisdom Literature.” They are Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song …

Masada, the Jewish-Roman War of 66-73, and the Writing of the Gospels

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 4 2009

The most impressive memory I have from my last trip to Israel is not of a religious site at all but of a military site, one that played an …

Galilee: The True Origins of the Jesus Story

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 28 2009

I spent several days recently in the region of Israel called Galilee. Contrary to what most people might expect I found my time in Galilee to be far more …

Being Interviewed in Bethlehem on the Birth Narratives of Jesus

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 21 2009

On Tuesday of Easter Week, my wife and I made our way to Bethlehem, a journey that carried us across the checkpoint and into the West Bank. That transition …

Jerusalem: Where Scholarship Ends and the Tourist Trade Begins

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 14 2009

It is not easy to be a biblical scholar when visiting the Holy Land. I spent Easter Monday of this year in the city of Jerusalem walking the Via …

The Origins of the Bible, Part XXV: The Book of Psalms

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 30 2009

When I was a child I went with my mother from time to time to Chalmer’s Memorial ARP Church, the church in which she had grown up. Those letters ” …

Why I Am Not a Unitarian

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 23 2009

Some years ago, while I was delivering a series of Lenten lectures in St. Peter’s Church in Morristown, New Jersey, a lay woman asked me a pointed and provocative …

The Origins of the Bible, Part XXIV: The Book of Ruth

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 2 2009

 
There are three books in the Hebrew Bible that are designated as “protest literature;” that is, they are all representative of a literary device used by an anonymous …

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