Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite

by L. Michael White

In Scripting Jesus , Michael White, famed scholar of early Christian history, reveals how the gospel stories of Jesus were never meant to be straightforward historical accounts, but rather were scripted and honed as performance pieces for four different audiences with four different theological agendas. As he did as a featured presenter in two award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries (“From Jesus to Christ” and “Apocalypse!”), White engagingly explains the significance of some lesser-known aspects of The New Testament; in this case, the development of the stories of Jesus—including how the gospel writers differed from one another on facts, points of view, and goals. Readers of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Bart Ehrman will find much to ponder in Scripting Jesus .

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Theology, Christianity, New Testament, Church History

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

L. Michael White is Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Classics and Christian Origins and is the director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of From Jesus to Christianity and was featured in two award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries, "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians" and "Apocalypse!," for which he also served as principal historical consultant and co-writer. He also directs ongoing archaeological excavations of one of the oldest Greco-Roman synagogues at Ostia, Italy.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure I'm going to make it through this one (I'm a little past the half-way point, I think). The author has expert-level knowledge of the bible, and apparently reads Greek and Hebrew so he can offer his own translation. He also has thorough knowledge of mythology, so his analysis is insightful and illuminating.

However, he has a blind spot a mile wide when it comes to his mythology of choice. He is a Christian and as such cannot take the logical step from explaining how other mythological figures being fiction or at best aggrandized mortals to Jesus is one as well. Or from other mythological tales are fiction to Christian tales are too.

It's more of an annoyance than a deal-breaker, but it's standing in the way of the book (and the analysis within) being great.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot to like about this book, with some important caveats. First, it ranges from very accessible to dry and academic, depending on the chapter. It's uneven, and can be a bit jarring, especially to someone who hasn't read much about the 'historical Jesus quest,' or textual criticism in general. Second, the author does lean towards a skeptical analysis on historical questions about the miracles, healings, and sayings of Jesus (though he's much less skeptical than the Jesus Seminar, which is refreshing); I wouldn't recommend this to someone who didn't have broad reading/awareness in this conversation, as some of White's conclusions are much more contested in the scholarly world than he makes them out to be (especially in the questions of dating manuscripts and authorship). Third, though it appears to be a "historical Jesus" book, it's really a book about the history of the Gospels - how they were written and passed on through oral tradition. The read should know whether or not that's of interest before diving in. Fourth and final, it's really really long, probably too long.

That all being said, I gained a lot from this! He lays out the distinctive voices of each Gospel writer in a really compelling way. I have a much deeper and more comprehensive understanding of how the Gospels contrast each other in their narrative theology (which I find fascinating). As a reference, it's also a great tool, as he includes many charts and maps that lay out the contrasting ways the Gospels portray the Jesus-story. I also found his core argument to be very interesting - trying to expose the "layers" of the Jesus tradition through Paul's early writings, what was preserved in oral tradition, and the authorship locations of each book. It's important to remember that it's one theory among many (and is a far from settled area of biblical scholarship), but is fascinating reading nonetheless. I would recommend this to anyone who is well versed in these conversations/areas of scholarship.

[Janis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite is a scholarly analysis of early Christian writings. Author L. Michael White primarily focuses on the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), but also covers the apocryphal gospels. He analyzes each gospel's structure and intended audience. He also compares and contrasts the gospels in a series of detailed charts. I agree with other reviewers who commented that the book was too long (it took me almost a year to finish!), but White obviously is an expert on this subject. I will definitely keep this book on my shelf for reference.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

His scholarship is top notch. You may disagree with his conclusions, but you can’t deny his scholarship. This is a hefty volume but well worth the read. What I like is the structured approach and the breakdown of each gospel culturally situated in context. His prose is consistent and easy to follow.

[Bill Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The format is terrible. Like reading a spreadsheet or a chart. However if you can deal with that its worth the effort to read.

Not being a biblical scholar I don't know if the ideas here are conventional wisdom, or total heresy. However they struck a chord with me. The author looked at the stories of Jesus and tried to show how the differences and similarities related to each other, and tried to deduce the origin. He looked mainly at the canonical writings but also less comprehensively at other writings. Examined the styles and inclusion or exclusion of various parts of the story. Related all this to time of writing and audience.

Interesting to me but when I tried talking about this book to others they all dismissed it as just the most obvious stuff in the world.

[Jeff Bozell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and insightful, this book can help any reader understand the good book’s temporal and geographical context.

[Bart · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exhausting academic treatment of an unworthy subject

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could file this under "books I found for dirt cheap that I wasn't too excited to read, so I skimmed." Overall this is a book packed full of information on how the gospels came to be written, with a heavy emphasis on oral tradition. Most valuable, the author argues that the gospels were written to be performed before an audience and many of the differences between them, which we deem contradictions, were no big deal. The question of whether some of the things really happened, the line between fiction and history, was not as important in the ancient world.

One question I did have came when the author discussed the Gospel of John and Gospel of Thomas. He talked about how some scholars date Thomas early, though the work is not mentioned by other Christians till the end of the second century. A few pages prior the author used John not being mentioned till around this time, if not a bit earlier, as evidence of it being written late (around 120 AD). How do scholars push Thomas so early and make John late when both do not show up till late, and John shows up as a completed text even earlier? The same question comes in when he discusses the Secret Gospel of Mark and notes that some think it is a forgery by the guy who claimed to discover it (Morton Smith) a few decades ago. Yet he brushes this idea off, even though serious scholars think this is the best explanation and even White's limited discussion makes me think it is probably a forgery. While this book is very even-handed, these couple cases reveal a bias of skepticism to the four canonical gospels and a desire to accept other gospels even if the evidence is against them.

That said, this is still a great read if you're interested in how the gospels came to be.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book that picked up cheap at my college's bookstore last year, but through various reasons it's taken me until now to actually finish it. The topic of the book is very interesting to me, as it deals with Biblical literature from a literary perspective, although theology does factor into their creation. In particular, this book goes into the Gospels' differing portrayals of Jesus and how these were determined by the intended audience and overall intent. The idea that they weren't meant to be literal history is perhaps lost on the average Christian, but is common knowledge among the scholars who study manuscripts and historians familiar with this period in Antiquity. That being said, I did find the actual presentation of the material and theories to wildly vary in quality. The author has a very dry style that kept me from really engaging with a lot of the points he makes, and is perhaps why I put the book down for so long after initially getting through half of it. Still, despite all of this, he does provide supplementary charts which break things down in a more palatable way and provide simple comparisons between the various aspects of the Gospels that he talks about. There were also some interesting appendices that go into Judean geography in this period (among other things). Taken as a whole book, it is a good work of scholarship, but I find Bart Ehrman to be much more readable.

[Michael Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiction is Not the Same as Falsehood*

Were the gospels "performed stories of faith rather than factual histories?"

Makes sense to me, especially after reading Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite, by L. Michael White.

White also wrote From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith - which is now on my too read list, and a PBS Frontline documentary on the topic of early Christianity.

White's detailed examination of the cultural, religious, and literary traditions that gave rise to Christianity is similar to work done by the more well-known Bart Ehrman. There are layers to Dr. White's analysis that are lost on me. Ironically, those with a love and knowledge of scripture sufficient to fully appreciate his arguments are probably most likely to reject his premise.

Whether you are a Christian or not, the early history of the religion is fascinating stuff.

*Taken from White's quote of David Kanstan (pg. 418)

[Randy Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I was thinking of using it in my Jesus class. However, its not really about the historical Jesus, it is more about the development of the Jesus tradition through the gospels. It was however a really interesting book and I got a lot out of it that I will integrate into my Intro to N.T. class. It might even work as a text book for intro to NT though pretty much it stops with Acts.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides outstanding background and context for the development of the New Testament. White provides historical, literary, philosophical and theological material in a readable style. Highly recommended.

[Peter Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done book on a scholarly literary analysis of the Gospels, including certain extra-canonical gospels. It's a heavily informed book from a scholarly background, but isn't technical. If you're interested in structural components of the Gospels, then this book is excellent. He also includes some very useful appendices.