The Fourth Gospel Quotes

“When a human life is open to all that humanity can be, humanity and divinity flow together as one. It was and is a radical insight, and one the consciousness of the mystic is destined to understand.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“John sees Jesus symbolically as the serpent lifted up on his cross, drawing the venom out of human life, restoring wholeness. It is a powerful image. John”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“It is the nature of human life to feed our ever-present security needs by displaying fear in the presence of anyone who is “different.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“To have life—not to become religious, not to achieve moral purity, not to win the contest to gain doctrinal orthodoxy, but to have life—that is the function of the Christ. It is to bring us to the experience of living in which we pass into new dimensions of life and cross the boundaries of fear that separate us from one another and from ourselves. That we “might have life and have it abundantly”—that is what Jesus is about; that is what Jesus brings. To be Christian is not to believe that message, but to live that message.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“In words used earlier in this gospel, Thomas is demanding a sign (John 2:18, 6:30).”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Elaine Pagels, in a book entitled Beyond Belief, in which she argued that the Fourth Gospel was written to contradict the gospel of Thomas; and that is why, she argues, the author of the Fourth Gospel made Thomas into a major character, unlike his treatment in any other Christian source.*”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“The text of the gospel of Thomas contains no miracle stories, no narrative of Jesus’ birth, no narrative of his death and no story of Easter. The book also has about it more of an Eastern mystical understanding of the nature of Jesus. It is not dogmatic or creedal and hence was not used in the theological battles that marked the first three hundred years of Christian history. Efforts to date the origin of this book have resulted in a range from as early as the 50s, which would make it prior to the writing of any of the canonical gospels, to a date well into the second century.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“That is what resurrection means for John, and it is not something that occurred just in the life of Jesus; it occurs or it can occur in each of us. The Christian life is not about believing creeds and being obedient to divine rules; it is about living, loving and being. Resurrection comes when we are freed to give our lives away, freed to love beyond the boundaries of our fears, freed not only to be ourselves, but to empower all others to be themselves in the full, rich variety of our multifaceted humanity. Here prejudice dies. Here wholeness is tasted. Here resurrection becomes real.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“I have said this in figures,” Jesus continues, but “the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25).”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“For Peter Easter dawns as an experience of a rising and unresolved tension, a conflict between a human yearning and a lived reality; it is an experience of a struggle to believe, of an attempt, usually unsuccessful, to see meaning beyond the limits inside which life seems to be bound. There are no apparitions that appear in this episode to move Peter along. There are no revelations designed to give birth to or even to confirm his struggling faith. All Peter sees is a grave that cannot hold Jesus, grave cloths that cannot bind him. That was enough for the “beloved disciple.” Peter was, however, a harder case. Resurrection is not easy—not for him and not for us. Its truth dawns slowly. Death as the doorway to life does not seem apparent. Yet that is the way John suggests that the meaning of Easter broke into human awareness among those who came to be known as the twelve. Perhaps John is trying to say to us that the resurrection we seek is not so much that of Jesus as it is of ourselves. That makes sense if we remember that this gospel is the work of a Jewish mystic, for no one should ever try to literalize the work of a mystic.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“He is portrayed as the ideal disciple, one who, in contrast to Peter, always understands immediately. The author of the Fourth Gospel has placed these two in tandem before and, as he tells the story of the resurrection, does so again. When they receive Mary’s message that the tomb has been opened, they run to see for themselves. The assumption is that both know where the tomb is and that the distance is not great. The “beloved disciple” arrives first. He will always precede Peter. At the entrance to the tomb, however, he waits, stooping down only to peer in. There he sees the burial cloths on the ground, no longer wrapped around a deceased body. John’s contrast is designed to be clear. This is not another “raising of Lazarus from the dead” story. Lazarus was a resuscitated body restored physically to the life of this world. He emerged from his tomb still bound in grave cloths. He had to be unbound and set free. Jesus, on the other hand, has clearly transcended life’s ultimate limit. He has already been transformed, raised to a new status and a new dimension of life. There will be no body on display. This is a new reality being introduced; something very different is forcing its way into their consciousness. The “beloved disciple,” who always sees beyond what Peter is able to see, does not rush into the tomb or into this mystery.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Who is he standing with in this dramatic scene at the foot of the cross? It is the mother of Jesus, who is also herself a symbol—a symbol of Judaism, the people of God. The Jewish people, who received the law, who raised up the prophets and who have now produced that “prophet of whom Moses spoke.” They have, however, had great trouble receiving what was their own great gift to the world. So John has Jesus on the cross commend his mother, Judaism, to the care of the “beloved disciple,” the one who embodies the future fulfillment of the Jesus movement. You cannot forget your past, John is saying to the community of the followers of Jesus, who have been expelled from the synagogue. You must accept and cherish the womb that bore you. You must embrace Judaism, your mother, and incorporate her into your own life. The tension that John’s community has experienced, their distress over their excommunication, their hostility toward the Jews, the chief priests and the Pharisees—all this must finally be overcome. “Woman, behold your son.” Judaism, behold your child, the Jesus movement. Then he says to that anonymous symbolic disciple, “Behold your mother” (John 19:27). From that day forward, this gospel writer says, “the disciple took her to his own home.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Pilate is the symbol of earthly power, the one who sees the kingship of Jesus, but only within limits, in vague outlines. He speaks a truth that he cannot finally embrace and becomes a symbol of the world against which the followers of Jesus must forever struggle. Finally, the “beloved disciple” is the symbol of what it means to journey beyond life’s defensive boundaries into the mystery of new life, new consciousness, that is to be found in the Christ experience.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“He is a mythological character, a symbol of those who see, of those who respond and of those who are transformed. He is the archetype of the Jesus movement. He represents the ones who are born of the spirit, the ones who are able to taste and experience, to share in the new life that Jesus came to bring. He is the “Lazarus” who has passed from death into life. The one who knows that to be in Christ is to have the life of God flow through him as the life of the vine flows through the branches. He is the symbol of the new creation, the first citizen of the new Israel, the representative of the first fruits of the kingdom of God. He is the one who sees, who believes and who understands. He is the ultimate representative of the Johannine community of believers, who have been excommunicated from the synagogue and then purged of those, like Judas, who cannot go all the way into the life that Jesus represents. He is the one who confronts those, like Peter, who waver and doubt, and he is the one who finally enables Peter (and those like him) to walk with his doubts and fears into the presence of all that Jesus means. He is the one at the Last Supper through whom Peter has to go to get to Jesus when the traitor is identified. Perhaps he is also Peter’s assurance that the traitor is not Peter himself. Perhaps John also intends it to be understood that the “beloved disciple” is the one who opens the door so the wavering Peter can get into the courtyard of the high priest. The “beloved disciple” will be the one who accompanies Peter to the tomb and then stands aside and makes way for Peter to enter before he does. Once inside the tomb, however, he will be the first to believe. Finally, he will be the one who identifies the risen Christ to Peter by the lake, the same risen Christ that Peter will finally see in the breaking of the bread on that lakeside. That experience, still to come in our investigation, is what finally will enable Peter, according at least to the author of the epilogue, to be fully restored and thus fully able to walk into the transformative Jesus experience. The “beloved disciple” is thus the ultimate definition of a follower of Jesus.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“He, like the mother of Jesus, is also nameless and enigmatic. He is called the “beloved disciple” or the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” and John will portray him as the first disciple to believe.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Now we watch as John places the mother of Jesus quite literally at the foot of the cross. That is also a unique Johannine twist. There is no reference in any other gospel to the presence of the mother of Jesus at the place of his execution. All of those great and magnificent pietàs carved or those portraits painted of the mother of Jesus holding her limp and dead son after he was taken from the cross are based solely on this single text. This detail is not history. It should be noted that it is the tenth decade of Christian history before the mother of Jesus and the cross are brought together in any Christian literature and when that juxtaposition finally occurs it serves a major Johannine motif. Christian piety and Christian art have through the centuries focused their devotional life so totally on this scene of the mother of Jesus at the cross that to point out the facts of biblical history almost seems like an act of irreverence. When we look, however, at the portrait of the mother of Jesus in the other gospels, we see why it took her so long to be placed in this role in the powerful Johannine interpretive story. She is not a major figure in any of the gospel portraits of Jesus. Her rise to prominence in the Christian tradition was very slow, far slower than most people realize.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Contrary to the earlier synoptic tradition, John portrays Jesus as bearing his own cross. John’s Jesus will be in control of every aspect of what John understands to be his ultimate revelation.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“The messianic claim has been renounced. God could never again be seen in the power symbols of either religion or politics, in church or state.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“The religious authorities claim the Roman government as their ally in the struggle against Jesus and Pilate now has to decide on which of these two sides he stands.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“To put this placing of blame in context, we need to know that it was widely believed among the followers of Jesus at this time that the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was direct punishment for the Jewish refusal to receive Jesus. At the actual moment of the writing of this gospel, the Jewish nation was itself broken, destroyed and powerless, but the Christians were also oppressed by the world. There was hope for the world, but no hope remained in John’s mind for the religious authorities of Judaism. The message of the Christ must transcend both religion and the power of the state, so those two entities are now aligned in degrees of guilt as the drama rolls on.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“We have a law, and by that law he ought to die,” they say—and finally the real issue that separates the followers of Jesus from the synagogue worshippers is articulated: Jesus’ real crime is that he had “made himself the son of God.” He had identified himself with “the great I AM.” He had claimed that the “word of God” was spoken through him and that the “will of God” was lived out in his life.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“The kingdom about which Jesus was speaking invites them into another realm of life—born of the spirit—in which there are no religious boundaries, not even a boundary between God and human life.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“So we set the context for this dramatic confrontation: Judas has betrayed, Peter has denied and the religious authorities, personified by Caiaphas, have judged Jesus worthy of death. They deliver Jesus, bound, to Pilate. These Jewish accusers, however, balk at the entrance to the Roman praetorium. They refuse to enter this Gentile center of power, for it is to them unclean territory. If they do not keep themselves from this Gentile pollution, they will not be able to eat the Passover. The defining and routine rituals of religion are to be observed, and yet these accusers place themselves in the position of trusting a moral code that allows the death penalty to be carried out against religious troublemakers. Here the values of religion are deeply compromised.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“This is a literary composition, deliberately designed to move the Fourth Gospel’s story of Jesus to its grand climax. It is also designed to say to the early Christians, for whom this gospel was written, that in their conflict with the power of Rome in their generation, they must be open to the possibility that the Romans seemed to come closer to understanding Jesus than did the Jews. Indeed, winning the approval of the Roman Empire might well have been one of John’s goals. In some strange ways, his text suggests, Rome itself perceived Jesus’ power even though neither the Empire nor its representative was able to act upon it.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Peter wrestles with this. He fights, he denies, he flees, but he does not remain in the darkness as Judas did. He finally escapes. He moves ultimately beyond the human to see the meaning of Jesus, where the human and the divine are seen to flow together into oneness.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“It is the word which proclaims that the life of God is found in our living, the love of God is found in our loving and the being of God is found in our being. John in this gospel is asserting that this word is made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. This does not mean that the external theistic deity comes out of the sky and enters the human Jesus in some incarnational way. It means rather that Jesus reveals in his life the freedom to live and in that living not to be at the mercy of every distorting force in life. It means that in Jesus there is a refusal to hide personal identity inside the security of tribal identity. It means that each of us can step outside the prejudices of our cultural roots, which serve to give us a sense of superiority that we think gives us a survival edge.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Do you also wish to go away?” It is the first of many moments in which a decision has to be made and Peter passes this early test, but just barely. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” he responds. “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Peter then goes on to say: “We have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God” (John 6:69). Was God thought of as a being? That is the way John is traditionally read, but if this book is one shaped by Jewish mysticism, as I am now convinced it is, this statement can also be a reference to a new dimension of life, something beyond the boundaries of our fear, where self-consciousness passes into universal consciousness and in which oneness is experienced. The boundary between being self-conscious and entering a universal consciousness is both genuine and real. Jesus could not be contained inside the boundary of mere self-consciousness and neither ultimately could the disciples, nor their composite representative, Peter, if he came to embrace what Jesus meant.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“As the gospel begins, “the disciples,” a term in which Peter, as the quintessential disciple, is always assumed to be included, had accompanied Jesus to the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. It was there for the first time that “his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11). What did they believe? For starters, the waters of Jewish purification had been transformed into wine, the spiritual beverage that gives life. In addition, they were with him when the Temple was cleansed, and they “remembered” the scripture that suggested, “Zeal for thy house has consumed me” (Ps. 69:9). Jesus then likened his body to that Temple and said that if it were destroyed, he would raise it up in three days.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“So you are Simon,” Jesus says, “but your destiny is to become as firm as a rock”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

“Judas is lost. The Judah citizens he represents, who believe they have captured the holy in the forms of their religious life and practice, are lost.”
― John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic