Description

‘Monumental and eye-opening’ Reza Aslan
‘A revelation […and…] an intellectual triumph’ Irish Independent
‘[A] massive achievement’ Spectator

The untold story of how enslaved people created, gave meaning to, and spread the word of the New Testament, shaping the very foundations of Christianity.

For the past two thousand years, Christian tradition, scholarship, and pop culture has credited the authorship of the New Testament to a select group of men: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. But the truth is that these individuals did not write alone. In some meaningful ways they did not write at all.

Hidden behind these named and sainted individuals are a cluster of enslaved coauthors and collaborators, almost all of whom go uncredited. They were responsible for producing the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. They took dictation, sometimes editorialising in the process, and polished and refined the final manuscripts. When the Christian message began to move independently from the first apostles it was enslaved missionaries who undertook the dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean and along dusty Roman roads to move Christianity from Jerusalem and the Levant to Rome, Spain, North Africa and Egypt. Finally, when these texts were read aloud to new audiences of curious potential converts, it was educated and trained enslaved workers who performed them – deciding whether a statement was sincere or sarcastic; a throwaway remark or something central to be emphasised. Their influence in the spread of Christianity and making of the Bible was enormous, yet their role has been almost entirely overlooked until now.

Filled with profound revelations for reading and understanding the gospels themselves, God’s Ghostwriters is a groundbreaking and rigorously researched book about how enslaved people shaped the Bible, and with it all of Christianity. It’s also an intimate portrait of lives not often considered by history, and a reckoning with the motives and methods of the early Christians as they spread their message across the ancient world.

Publisher Review

Praise for Candida Moss

‘This is the best sort of history: delightfully accessible yet based on prodigious scholarship, deeply serious, yet entertaining and enlightening. Above all, it shows the reader the importance of sweeping away myth, in order that we do not behave badly in the present, using the past as our excuse’ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University and author of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

‘Compellingly argued and artfully written … An important book and a fascinating read’ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

‘Brilliant and provocative’ Publisher’s Weekly

‘Historical argumentation at its most cogent’ Booklist

‘Fascinating …One of the most enlightening aspects is Moss’s ability to find contemporary analogies that make the ancient world more intelligible to the average reader’ Salon.com

‘Candida Moss’s lithe [writing] investigates all these questions with lively erudition, with humour and with insight’ Paula Fredriksen, author of When Christians Were Jews

‘Will shake you to your core … This is a must read’ Reza Aslan, author of the New York Times bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

‘Exhaustively researched, yet accessible … Moss’s book lays bare the truth and presents us with the opportunity to, instead of retelling myth, begin to explore the actual history’ Portland Book Review

‘A brave book in these dishonest times’ Charles R Larson, Counterpunch

‘Exhaustively reported and scrupulously fair’ Sarah Jones, The New Republic

‘Highly worth reading’ Tara Isabella Burton, Vox

‘Impressive’ Kirkus Reviews

‘Like the ancient poets, Moss at once instructs and entertains. She also transgresses the boundary between historian and theologian and calls the church to repentance’ Christian Century