The Holy Bible is a compendium of literature which reflects the ways of living and thinking of a fragmented religious sub-society known as Israelites or Jews and another small widely dispersed social movement we know as early Christianity. These ways of thinking were influenced and changed over time by larger societies in which they lived.

In an attempt to understand this literature it is necessary to ask questions such as the following: What were the worldviews of the people who created the oral stories of early religious thought? In what way did the experiences of succeeding generations modify the stories and their meanings? What happened to the myths and their meanings as they moved across cultural boundaries and through long periods of time? What was the cultural background and experience of the people who wrote the materials we read in the Bible? What were the cultural experiences, motivations and purposes of the people who formed early Christianity?

Of particular interest in this book is the role of two men who lived in the first century of our era and their followers who shaped the thought and theology of the New Testament.

Jesus of Nazareth preached a Gospel of love which has shaped the life of some followers through the centuries. Saul of Tarsus formulated theological ideas that gave rise to Christianity in the last half of the first century CE and continues to influence this religion to this day.

Serious consideration of these questions may enrich our understanding of the Christian scriptures. Inevitably we build on the understandings and beliefs of our ancestors. But how do we proceed with this task?

It is hard work. It is painful work. The pain arises when deeply-held convictions are questioned. For those who think the Bible is history, the certainties of faith may be challenged. To realize that the “Holy Scriptures” and the early church were social creations may be unsettling. For those who have casually discarded their traditional religion and think that myths are meaningless, these questions may call for re-engagement, a humbling experience.

To begin this task we may have to acknowledge that religious literature is literature. The Greco-Roman world preserved and modified vast collections of these kinds of materials from many Near Eastern cultures. This wealth of scriptures describes and illustrates the worldview of Near Eastern peoples at the turn of our era. The task of this book is the reconstruction of that social world, its theological perspectives and the implications for our culture in the 21st century.

This is a scientific task. The coalescence of data into some patterned form enables the creation of hypotheses. This is a challenging and exhilarating activity. Supporting data may be found in subsequent social formations of all kinds.

I am aware of the hypothetical nature of some of the crucial observations in this book. I am also aware of considerable substantiating data which lead to conclusions consistent with sociological theory, the canons of literary criticism and internal evidence in the New Testament. It is my conviction that contradictory evidence will be hard to find.







An Introductory Summary

The New Testament has stimulated the production of many thousands of books, essays, scholarly articles and endless discussions during the last two thousand years. The disagreements about what its text means are endless.

How is such confusion and consternation possible?

But such a result was inevitable. The New Testament is a collection of diverse documents which are contradictory, confusing and in many cases consist of fused mental constructs and ideologies formulated in markedly different contexts and different views of the world.

Foundational to all this confusion is the existence of two very distinct gospels.

Jesus of Nazareth promoted the doctrine that loving human relationships were absolutely crucial to the development of human beings. He promoted the doctrine that human beings could live life to the fullest only if they related to one another with empathy, compassion and caring in all aspects of human interaction. The result of such a way of living would be a condition of social equality. All would have equal resources and equal power. Such a condition is the nature of the “kingdom of God.” This was gospel for the masses of people in the Greco-Roman world of the first century.

A casual or devotional reading of Saul (Paul) of Tarsus, the Damascus road, Arabia and other materials often attributed to him promoted the doctrine that all human beings could be reconciled to God, a supernatural spiritual being, if they had “faith” in the atoning, self sacrifice of “Jesus Christ.” This “faith” would transform the “believers” into spiritual beings who then would be spiritually equal with all “believers” in this world and, and after death, would have endless bliss in association with God and Jesus Christ in their supernatural world. The conditions of social and physical inequality in this world were of little or no importance. According to these writers this was God’s plan for human beings. This was gospel for the small group of rich and powerful people who controlled the masses in the first century Greco-Roman world.

The two gospels are irreconcilable.

But the writers, rewriters and editors by the mid decades of the second century managed to fuse these two gospels into the confusion we have today.