I am interested in in John Spong’s theory that the gospels were written to follow the order of the Jewish liturgical year. Also he appears to believe oral sources for the gospels originated from the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures by Jewish followers of Jesus in the synagogues. I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts to share.
I’ve seen this. I think it would be very hard to “prove”. I looked into it some years ago. I did “some” mapping of the liturgical year (of which there are 2 versions). Very difficult undertaking. The one scholar who decades ago actually did map out the book of Matthew inspired Spong. His work was dense and extensive and a lot of passages were written in the Greek or Hebrew. On top of all that, you have the state of antiquity to deal with. Times change and with that customs. I think Dr. Ehrman was once asked a question about this idea and simply dismissed it as not true.
I asked Bart about this same question, While Spong has a very compelling point, Bart pointed out that some of the traditions that Spong uses as being analogous to the Jesus life narrative, might not have existed in the same way during the first and second centuries. My observation: That being said, certain teachings about Jesus would lend themselves to being taught at certain times of the year and might have picked up simultaneous traditions at that time of year. Example: Mark says that people laid cloaks and “leafy” branches down as Jesus approached Jerusalem. It might have been close to the second century before these branches became palm branches, as John reports.
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