God's ghostwriters Enslaved Christians and the making of the Bible

Moss (The Myth of Persecution), a theology professor at the University of Birmingham, argues in this erudite outing that enslaved people played a vital role in fashioning the gospels and Paul's epistles. She cites evidence that the apostle Paul may have had "enslaved attendants" who helped him master his "raw material into conventionally acceptable forms" by "elevating and clarifying" his writing, and that gospel writer Mark himself may have been enslaved and taken dictation from the disciple Peter. Elsewhere, Moss posits that enslaved messengers in the first and second centuries served as "interpretive guides," performing the scripture they delivered to audiences across the Roman Empire to Galilee, translating texts "into different cultural registers," and validating and "answer for the message itself." Links between scriptural content and sociohistorical background intrigue, including how the "relentless violence of hell" depicted in the Bible "makes sense in the context of an ancient social order and system of justice that fiercely punished the socially disenfranchised." Acknowledging that "all reconstructions of the ancient writing process are necessarily imaginative, Moss draws on primary sources and studies of enslavements in other periods, including the antebellum U.S. South, resulting in a work that leans heavily on speculation. Still, students of Christian history will find plenty to appreciate in this innovative reinterpretation. (Mar.)

A study of the forgotten writers behind the Christian scriptures. Moss, the chair of theology at the University of Birmingham and the author of The Myth of Persecution, sets out to uncover the labor of enslaved people in the writing, editing, and copying of the New Testament. The author provides a wide-ranging overview of the role of slavery in the ancient Mediterranean world, especially the use of enslaved people as readers and writers. Using conjecture, she links the Gospel writers and Paul, especially, to literate people enslaved under Roman rule, beginning with the known fact that Paul dictated his words to scribes. However, her attempts to tie specific New Testament writings to enslaved labor are largely unconvincing. For example, Moss posits a scenario in which Paul speaks through a prison window to a scribe, who must squat on the pavement all day writing down Paul's words, which the scribe would then have some sway over; she also searches for hidden slave language and meaning in the Gospels, inferring, for instance, that certain aspects of Jesus' teachings were directly influenced by enslaved writers. Her arguments are thought provoking, but it is nearly impossible to know, 2,000 years later, what the exact situations were, what role in society scribes occupied, and what liberties they may have taken with texts. Nevertheless, Moss sees her goal in this study as doing the "reparative work" of rediscovering the role and agency of enslaved persons in the formation of the Christian scriptures. To a degree, she has done just that--even if she leaves readers with more questions. An intriguing thesis, but Moss overreaches. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.