Professional Documents
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1 The author read this paper on Sunday 28 October 2007 at the University
of South Africa. It was deliberately planned to coincide with Protestant
churches celebration of the Reformation on the last Sunday of October. It was
decided to keep to the wording of the paper as it was delivered on that day and
not to adjust it to a more elevated style normally required for scholarly articles.
2 Research Associate, Department of Old Testament & Ancient Near
Eastern Studies and Department of New Testament, University of South Africa.
7 The Gospel according to Luke may be hard to date. Luke had moved far
enough out of the Jewish orbit geographically and into the Gentile world that
these two events may not have been important enough in Luke’s work to have
received notice. Luke strikes me as prior to 95 CE, no earlier than the late 80’s.
8 Some ancient manuscripts add the phrase “The Son of God” after Jesus
Christ, but this appears to be an early copyist’s addition.
9 My study on this issue has been shaped in large measure by the English
biblical scholar Michael Donald Goulder, expressly in his book Midrash and
Lection in Matthew.
10 This lecture is drawn substantially out of my book Jesus for the Non-
Religious (Spong 2007), now out in paperback from HarperCollins. There the
reader will find a fuller treatment and an expanded documentation of the ideas
presented here.