The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Unbelievers

by Stephen Mitchell

From Stephen Mitchell comes an interpretation of the Gospels that peels away the distortions regarding the character and teachings of Jesus that have accumulated over time
This translation of the life and teachings of Jesus creates an image of not only a great spiritual teacher, but of a real person. Eminent author and translator Stephen Mitchell's approach to the Gospels has been widely praised for its depth, clarity, and radiance. This is a stunning work for believers and non-believers alike.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Christianity, Philosophy, Theology, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Stephen Mitchell was educated at Amherst College, the Sorbonne, and Yale University, and de-educated through intensive Zen practice. He is widely known for his ability to make old classics thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and to create versions that are definitive for our time. His many books include The Gospel According to Jesus, The Second Book of the Tao, two books of fiction, and a book of poetry.

Mitchell’s Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke has been called “the most beautiful group of poetic translations [the twentieth] century has produced.” William Arrowsmith said that his Sonnets to Orpheus “instantly makes every other rendering obsolete.” His Book of Job has been called “magnificent.” His bestselling Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita, and Gilgamesh—which are not translations from the original text, but rather poetic interpretations that use existing translations into Western languages as their starting point—have also been highly praised by critics, scholars, and common readers. Gilgamesh was Editor’s Choice of The New York Times Book Review, was selected as the Book Sense 2004 Highlight for Poetry, was a finalist for the first annual Quill Award in poetry. His translation of the Iliad was chosen as one of the New Yorker’s favorite books of 2011. He is a two-time winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.

His books for young readers include The Wishing Bone, winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award as the best book of poetry for children published in the United States in 2003, and Jesus: What He Really Said and Did, which was chosen by the American Library Association’s Booklist as one of the top ten religious books for children in 2002.

He is also coauthor of two of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books: Loving What Is and A Thousand Names for Joy. www.thework.com

You can read extensive excerpts from all his books on his website, www.stephenmitchellbooks.com.

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We can't begin to see who Jesus was until we remove the layers of interpretation which centuries have interposed between us and him, and which obscure his true face, like coat after coat of lacquer upon the vibrant colors of a masterpiece."
- Stephen Mitchell, The Gospel According to Jesus


[painting by J. Kirk Richards]

I'm a big fan of Mitchell's translation (interpretations). So, I was excited to see what approach he would take with Jesus from the Gospels. The first 1/3 of this book (pp 1-97; including about 35 pages of notes) is Mitchell's introduction to the project. He draws inspiration from the Jefferson Bible (aka The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth) where Thomas Jefferson cut the New Testament down to only include the saying of Jesus. Jefferson wanted nothing to get between him and Jesus. In many ways, that too is the approach of Mitchell. He uses modern biblical scholarship and textual analysis to narrow down the "authentic" Jesus from the sectarian passages, the polemical passages and myths added by the early church. One can certainly argue on the edges with what Mitchell includes or excludes, but he does make a viable case for creating a more consistent message out of the often contradictory narratives and teachings of Jesus. I tend to agree with both Jefferson and Mitchell, that "when the accretions are recognized and stripped off, Jesus surprisingly appears in all his radiance. Like the man in Bunyan's riddle, the more we throw away, the more we have."

Interestingly, the Gospel left by Mitchell is only about 25 pages (pp 101 to 126). It is followed by about 150 pages of commentary and finally an appendix of about 30 pages with writings on Jesus by Baruch Spinoza, William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Bernard Shaw, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Ramana Maharshi.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a Christian background, you may have noticed that while Jesus is an extraordinarily wise, kind, patient, and tolerant character most of the time, he will occasionally break out with some crazy stuff about people being damned to hell. That never made sense to me, and this book explains why: many of the sections that struck me as odd are actually written in a different style of Greek -- probably added at a later time by the founders of the Christian religion.

Mitchell's project is one that others -- including Thomas Jefferson -- have taken on before: to sort out the church propaganda and see what is left. Mitchell goes way beyond that, however, and cross-references his distillations with other mystic spiritual texts from around the world.

This book is really helpful for context in comparing Christianity with other systems, especially Eastern ones.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel a kind of wistful envy toward people who have a clear image of Jesus. The images differ--wiry prophet of social justice; Son of God Incarnate, feet barely touching the dust he walked on; witty wandering sage; Buddha of the Mediterranean.

Mitchell has done his homework, reviewing what is known or conjectured about the provenance of each passage in the Gospels we have received. Scholarship informs his views, and helped his image of Jesus to develop. In the end, his image allows him to say of the reports of Jesus' life and action, "this is authentic" or "this is not authentic."

Mitchell's Jesus is a great spiritual teacher with a healing touch and a few unhealed wounds. I like him. He says things I need to learn and relearn.

But my image of Jesus, what I suppose the evangelicals mean when the speak of "a personal relationship" with Jesus, is still a little foggy. Perhaps too much light in the developing darkroom of my soul.

[Randy Cauthen · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, generally I really like Mitchell. I like the Gilgamesh, I like the Job, I like the Rilke. And to really do a decent job critiquing this, I'd have to go back and figure out exactly what his editing of the canon actually is.
But. He has a tendency here to say, regarding his own selection and translation, "Well what Jesus really means here is this," and this drives me nuts. Why not either re-edit to eliminate the supposedly problematic passages, or simply engage in dialogue? And the idea of a fundamental conflict with his birth family is overworked some.

[Mark Robison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a conversational, easy read about thorny questions of spirituality.

The author/translator spends about 2/3rds of this short book giving background to set up his translation of the parts of the New Testament that he thinks capture the words and philosophy of Jesus. It ends the moment Jesus is killed.

He intertwines Jesus' teachings with those of the Buddha and Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching: A New English Version), whom he's also translated.

I suspect that anyone really invested in Christianity won't like this because you'll have your own theories about certain passages challenged, such as why Jesus is so dismissive of his mother and tells his disciples to turn their backs on their families. The author really digs into speculative psychology after always explaining the basis for each idea.

Reading this helped me understand better why Ram Dass so often incorporated Jesus' words into his own Hindu/Buddhist teachings.

Anyway, my attention never flagged, as it does with most spiritual books, and it brought up interesting memories from my childhood when I went to church often and studied the Bible regularly. I look forward to reading it again.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because it is informative about current scholarship in places. Other than that it's pretty bad. Mitchell interprets Jesus according to his own idea of universal religious truth (plenty influenced by Zen Buddhism). The fact is that Jesus was of his time and place and that's why he expressed himself the way he did. He was not part of some fantastical line of religious masters. It's often unclear whether Mitchel has left a part of the gospel out because scholars agree it is a later addition, or just because Mitchell thinks "Jesus wouldn't have said that" based on his artificially constructed Jesus. So though he does cite scholars (certain ones repeatedly), he mostly comes off like Thomas Jefferson who simply snipped the parts of Jesus he liked out of the Bible. Except even Jefferson did not presume to lecture Jesus on where he fell short of universal religious truth and how he could have expressed himself better.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite quotes:

"The kingdom of God will not come if you watch for it. Nor will anyone be able to say, 'It is here' or 'It is there.' For the kingdom of God is within you."

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to suffering, and those who go through it are many. But the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to true life, and those who find it are few."

[Ryan Haczynski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book chock full of exquisite scholarship. The edition I read is the full version, not the shorter one listed here on GoodReads. As a Religious Studies major who has always been fascinated with Formative Christianity, I found Mitchell's work to be informative and in line with many of my own thoughts on the subject. Additionally, the cross-cultural comparisons to other wisdom literature was enlightening and truly illustrate that Christianity's spiritual wisdom is not so different from other cultural expressions / understanding of the sacred. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in delving deeply into the topic while clearing away the dogmatic/doctrinal clutter that has been added to Jesus' teachings over the centuries.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the benefit of 200 years of additional biblical scholarship Stephen Mitchel recapitulates an experiment that Thomas Jefferson began while president and finished shortly thereafter - the result was known in the Jefferson family as "The Jefferson Bible." It now resides in the Library of Congress.
Mitchell is a bible scholar of note, and translates from the Greek and Hebrew texts, to create his own 'Jefferson Bible' so to speak.

[Ted Shaffner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most insightful and profound looks into Jesus anywhere. The footnotes are just as interesting as the text. This is not a look at some historical Jesus in some long-ago past, but at a living, breathing believable human being. You'll find as much of yourself in this book as you will of Jesus.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is brilliant, fearless book, that makes sense of the often contradictory verbage appearing in the Gospels, clearing away the garbage left by evangelists with an angenda, to reveal the shining truth of Jesus' ministry. Jesus was probably the first person on this planet to "get it" that the spirit of God lives within us. All you need is love - "good news" indeed!

[Ottavio Piccolo]

I regret having bought this book. Mitchell’s approach completely misses the real power of the Judeo-Christian tradition. He fails to appreciate the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian faith. NT authors collected their material from stories that circulated by oral tradition. These writers arranged and added to this material in light of their own experience of the Holy Spirit, and the needs of their particular faith communities. For Christians, the Gospels are authentic because they contain not only the actual words of Jesus, but also because they are written by faithful witnesses and believers who were inspired by Jesus’s living Spirit. Stephen Mitchell is an agnostic, perhaps atheistic Jewish-Buddhist, a JOBU! So, what could we expect? In Mitchell’s account of Jesus’s life, there is no God and no resurrection of the dead; there are no miracles, few healings, and no angels or demons. His materialistic/psychological approach completely disregards the power of faith to convey truth. Mitchell uses Thomas Jefferson as a source for understanding Christian scripture. This is a bit like using the Pope as a source for understanding Buddhism. Jefferson was a typical product of the Enlightenment, a non-Christian who sought to strip the Gospels of soul, divinity and mystical reality, and to make human reason god. Mitchell’s method of critiquing Christian texts by consulting only the “inner evidence” of his intuition, is occasionally interesting, but one wonders why he doesn’t simply ask Christians about their own experience, in their own terms. His arrogant, and contentious approach lacks empathic curiosity of those who are different than himself. Mitchell’s non-Christian assumptions follow from the worldviews of Marx and Freud, who for different reasons dismissed all religious and mystical experience as neurotic projections of the human psyche. Thus, according to Mitchell, when NT authors speak about angels and demons, they are projecting their own human fears and wishes onto imaginary beings: according to Mitchell, the angel who speaks to Joseph in a dream is merely one of Joseph’s own “inner voices”. This is a mistake. Mitchell’s reduction of our interior life to a self-enclosed exchange of inner voices precludes other interesting, postmodern interpretations.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had really high hopes for this one as Stephen Mitchell seems well versed in many historical religious writings and comes from a background where I hoped he would see "more" within the gospels. It started off quite interestingly with discussion on Thomas Jefferson and the "Jefferson Bible" but much of the rest of the book is sadly not what one would expect. I don't mean to sound negative of him personally and I don't mean it as such, but much of this book is made of up of his own observations that are seen through a narrower perspective than the one he attributes to Paul of Tarsus. Several leaps are made and questions posed as though there can be no other answer or that his answer seems the best or most likely but these are simply not accurate. I attribute this to writings and information that he simply hasn't been made aware of. The actual gospel he paints at the very end of the book is fine for what it is and what I assumed more of the actual book would be so if you are interested in reading this book based on the title I would skip to the end.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating and eye-opening journey, especially the introduction, which I would rate a solid 4 stars (if the introduction was by itself). The middle section is the Bible stripped down to what the author believes (and has some data) to be its original, unembellished form, providing a unique version of scripture. The ending, a commentary on the "true" Bible, started strong but felt slow at points, causing my interest to wane somewhat. The overarching concept - that the most accurate portrayal of Jesus might not come from the entirety of the traditional Bible - is intriguing and thought-provoking. This book's ideas align with The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault (one of my favorite spiritual books).

[Eddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me clear some religious trauma I had gained from being raised Christian and Conservative. Seeing Jesus in this new, more compassionate light made me supremely frustrated that Christianity is so often taught counter to Jesus' real teachings and also how Jesus is always shown as inhumanly perfect with no flaws or hangups. This book made me relate to Jesus and feel glad that at least some of his teachings have been passed down through the years. If you feel like you have some religious hangups, this book might help you.

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this is such a beautiful book! A precious jewel both for believers and unbelievers, and perhaps much more beautiful for the latter. It is full of poetry, enlightment, joy and hope, here on Earth. I’ve always loved Jesus’ teachings, but this work of reading them from oriental philosophy broadened my perspective and gave me a lot to meditate about and to enjoy. I higly recommend it to everyone, especially to non believer seekers of truth.

[MG · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a fresh and insightful essay about Jesus coupled with a short translation of what Stephen Mitchell considers the core or authentic teachings of Jesus. I wish in the essay Mitchell would have spent more time saying positively what he saw as the foundation of Jesus's teaching. Still, his grappling with Jesus's family background--his illegitimacy, his tension with his mother and brothers--were enlightening, as were the other topics he covered. This book is well worth perusing.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

310 pages with notes and commentary and an Introduction. But the meat is similar to the Logia of Yeshua: just the scenes in the Gospel where Jesus speaks directly. Only his words and actions. No filters or obstructions. 25 pages. Double spaced. With High School Kid Trying to Fatten Up His Page Count margins. Imagine that. All the strife of the world caused by people waving the Bible as justification when they should just focus on those 25 pages. Shrug. Sigh. Sigh.

[Robert Ongley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. It gave me some new perspectives on the life of Jesus, from his societal ranking as a bastard to being doubted by his own family. It helped me clarify and delineate Jesus' actual teachings. It also made me realize how the Gospels feed into anti-Semitism with their rhetoric about the Jews being responsible for the crucifixion. My perception that organized religion has damaged the real message of Jesus was reinforced by this book.

[Jenalee Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love Stephen Mitchell’s work, which is why I had to read this one. I appreciate how he lays out the background of his research, as well as provides multiple perspectives to help understand the authenticity of what unfolded. In this work, I felt I got to know more about Stephen Mitchell through his sharing of personal accounts from his Zen Master. There were valuable connections made with Taoism, Buddhism, and other belief systems too. Enjoyed this and it’s a quick read!

[Steve Gambino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those familiar with scholars who have written in the field of the quest for the historical Jesus will find this of interest. Mitchell is a brilliant translator and has provided what he deems the essential teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Notes and commentary are provided in separate sections so that one can read the story pure and simple followed by the aforementioned commentary and notes.

[Anne McKeirnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of valuable insights in this book. I got a lot out of it. However the style it was written in for the second half of the book I found difficult to enjoy. He had you read his edited version of the gospels and then repeated them again with analysis. So you had to read everything twice. I would have liked it better if that had been all in one from the beginning.

[Carol Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my 3rd time re-reading this...it is an amazing treatise on Christianity, and restores my own faith in the recognition of all spiritual traditions. I agree with Stephen Mitchell's separating the truth from the fables that have grown around this particular religion.

[Perf · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this 20 years ago, and keep meaning to reread. Good attempt to demystify the myths while retaining faith in the reality of the teaching.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very beautiful book, but it turned into passages that Jesus said or not. Then, it should have been called a different title. Overall I received much from the book about Jesus and his teachings.

[Burnettkw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and insightful - but not necessarily well founded in scripture, doctrine, or history - commentary on the New Testament gospels.

[Deena]

I be doing way too much for my humanities class
Anyways does skimming count as reading?

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be very helpful in understanding Jesus. Mitchell brings the historical context that is either lost or ignored to the front to bring deeper meaning to passages about Jesus.

[Robin Mydlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to re-read this many, many times.

[Florenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The antidote I didn't know I needed to cure myself from the dogmatic nonsense I was taught in primary school about Jesus and the Christian faith more generally.