Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel

by John Shelby Spong

The gospel writers, including Matthew, were trying to relate the teachings of the Jesus of history to the issues being faced by those coming into the Christian community in their own time, and they were trying to discern “the mind of Christ” in regard to those issues. These post-Jesus “teachings” are, therefore, attempts on the part of the followers of Jesus to have him speak to the problems they were facing in the ninth decade of the Christian movement. What this means is that we cannot and should not relate to these teachings as if they represented the literal words of Jesus. Only those who were not familiar with the Jewish practices out of which this teaching section arose would ever have made that mistake. That is why biblical literalism is, in the last analysis, a Gentile heresy. With that introduction now in our minds, we turn to the journey section of the gospel of Matthew and we listen to the “teachings of Jesus” being given through the church to the second and third generation of those who described themselves as followers of Jesus.