TODD MILLER

       Bulletin Correspondent

      People usually see red when Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal Diocese
      Newark, N.J ., speaks -- and it's not the shade of the clerical tunic under his black suit.

     Spong has ruffled ideological feathers. In fact, he has received 16 threats on his life, "for
     threatening the [ostensibly] infallible Bible," he said.

     Before TV journalist Bill Moyers gathered religious experts to tackle Genesis, religious
     scholars and clergy have met twice a year for the past 12 years in Santa Rosa for the
     Jesus Seminar, to debate the life of Jesus.

     At a recent Jesus Seminar in Santa Rosa's Flamingo Hotel, Spong, author of "Liberating the
     Gospels: Reading the Bible With Jewish Eyes" (HarperSanFrancisco), minced no words.
 

"    Christians have been blinded to the truth of the New Testament by their own anti-Semitism,"
     he said.

     Sponsored by Santa Rosa's Westar Institute, the Jesus Seminar  "separates historical fact
     from the composite myths" of Jesus' life, said Rabbi Sanford Lowe, a professor of religious
     studies at Santa Rosa Junior College, and one of the few Jews among some 200 partici-
     pants.

     At the seminar, Spong maintained that many Christian Bible stories are retellings of Jewish
     Bible stories by Hebrew scholars using Midrash, or Bible commentary, to replace the old
     idols with new ones.
 
    "Moses parted the Red Sea. Then when we arrive at Matthew, Mark and Luke, we find that
    the Jordan River coincidentally parts for everyone who approaches it," he said.

    "The river split for Joshua and again for Elijah. When it came to Jesus, the story went one
    better, and the entire heavens split open."

    There's a good chance Judas didn't exist, Spong said, but was a scapegoat created to shift
    blame for the death of Jesus from the Romans to the Jews.

    Spong noted that the name "Judas" is similar to that of the biblical Judah, a figure who
    tried to  betray his brother Joseph by selling him into slavery for pieces of silver --
    just as "Judas sold out Jesus."

    Other parallels surfaced, Spong said. Jesus' 12 disciples represented the 12 tribes of Israel
    established by the sons of Jacob.

    And John, one of the Gospel writers, traces the activities of Jesus through the Jewish
    calendar, from the Feast of Tabernacles (or Sukkot) to the Festival of Dedication (Chanukah)
    to Passover.

     Drawing on such common references and using a midrashic method of relating the story of
    Jesus, writers of the Christian Bible hoped to appeal to a Jewish audience, he said.

     By debunking myths, Spong is not out to convert anyone, however.

     "I don't want to bring Jews to Christianity or Christianity to Jewishness," he said.

     "I hope to bring a recognition to Christianity of the Jewish womb from which it sprung and to
     apologize to the Jewish people for thousands of years of anti-Semitism."

The Feisty Bishop....

          Pounds Fundies        Hammers Homophobes
 
                        Jabs Traditionalists              Works Over Literalists

                                Floors Misognynists
 
 

 

Feb. 22, 2002