An Evening with Barbara Walters

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 15 2014

She was born to non-practicing Jewish parents. Because her father owned a series of night clubs from Boston to Miami, she grew up in the company of show business …

Jewish Symbols of the Lamb Applied to Jesus

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 24 2014

Part I: The Lamb of Passover

I want to interrupt our study of Matthew for a few weeks in order to turn our attention to the great …

Part XIX Matthew – Did Jesus Really Do Miracles?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 17 2014

Most people, who are related at least tangentially to the Christian faith, assume that Jesus was a miracle worker. By this they mean that he possessed the ability to …

Part XVIII Matthew – Matthew’s Flashback to John the Baptist

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 3 2014

We suggested last week that Mark, the author of the first gospel to be written, introduced his story of Jesus with a narrative appropriate to the Jewish New Year …

Is the Jesus Story a Myth? Did a Man Named Jesus Ever Live?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 13 2014

Recently in my parish church, St. Peter’s in Morristown, New Jersey, I completed a seven week-lecture series on Matthew’s version of Jesus’ birth. In those lectures I pointed to …

Part XIV Matthew – The Sermon on the Mount: Sinai Revisited

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 20 2014

Matthew is portraying Jesus as the New Moses who went to the top of a new mountain to deliver a new interpretation of the Torah. He is not a …

Part IX Matthew. Matthew Introduces Joseph – The Earthly Father of Jesus

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 19 2013

Matthew’s opening genealogy of Jesus is now complete with the intriguing idea that the line which produced Jesus of Nazareth, traveled not only through the royal family of the …

Part VIII Matthew: What is the Meaning of the Virgin Birth?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 21 2013

It is difficult for most Christians to imagine that the story of Jesus’ virgin birth was a late developing tradition in the Christian faith, yet it appears to have …

Part VII Matthew: The Shady Ladies of Matthew’s Genealogy

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 14 2013

The audience for which Matthew wrote was conversant with the Jewish Scriptures, so when he mentions Tamar in the genealogy, they would know her story. The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, …

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