God’s Ghostwriters

Candida Moss

$29.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

William Collins
27 March 2025

Biography: historical, political & military; Biography: religious & spiritual; True stories of heroism, endurance & survival; History of the Americas; Slavery & abolition of slavery

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

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.

By: Candida Moss
Imprint: William Collins
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 300g
ISBN: 9780008612214
ISBN 10: 0008612218
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 27 March 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Candida Moss is Edward Cadbury Chair of Theology at the University of Birmingham, prior to which she taught for almost a decade at the University of Notre Dame. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and a MA and PhD from Yale University. The award-winning author or co-author of seven books, she has also served as Papal News Commentator for CBS News and writes a column for The Daily Beast. She has written for and had her work reported on in the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Guardian, New Scientist, BBC.com, CNN.com, POLITICO, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Daily Mail, and Le Monde. In addition to regularly commenting on religious affairs for CBS, Dr Moss has also served as an on-air expert for CNN and Fox News, and appeared in documentaries for CNN, NBC, National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery Channel and the BBC. She lives in New York.

Reviews for God’s Ghostwriters

‘Refreshingly readable … Definitely one to ponder the next time someone tries to tell us what they are saying is the “gospel truth”’ Guardian ‘A tour de force that will be a revelation to many… An intellectual triumph – it encourages us to think of the New Testament in particular, and early Christian writing in general, in provocatively exciting new ways’ Irish Independent ‘[Moss’s] massive achievement is to shift the paradigm and tell the early Christian story from the perspective of the enslaved’ Spectator ‘Professor Moss has bitten the bullet and attempted the impossible: to delineate the invisible … The primary area of the author’s study is the New Testament, but vivid investigations of subsequent developments follow, each neatly woven round one prominent core: the development of the text itself’ Church Times ‘Moss’ blending of sacred and secular sources significantly reimagines the writing and reading of the New Testament… Gives voice and dignity to enslaved contributors to the New Testament’ The Critic ‘A book to put an exegetical cat among nervous scholarly pigeons … Therefore very interesting; it may well mean that many of the problems of New Testament scholarship are not as easily solved as we had supposed’ The Tablet ‘Erudite … Students of Christian history will find plenty to appreciate in this innovative reinterpretation’ Publishers Weekly ‘Lucid, convincing, and deceptively transgressive’ Rev. Jarel Robinson-Brown, author of Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer ‘At once eminently readable and rigorously researched, God’s Ghostwriters cements Candida Moss as the most compelling voice in Biblical scholarship. The role of enslaved people in the writing and dissemination of the gospels has been ignored for far too long' Reza Aslan, bestselling author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth