The early history of the Bible and those central to assisting Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul in writing the New Testament will take center stage in the Kalamazoo College Department of Religion annual Armstrong Lecture on Wednesday. 

Candida Moss will present “God’s Ghostwriters: The Lost Histories of the New Testament’s Enslaved Coauthors” at 4:30 p.m. in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall. Moss is the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, U.K., and a research associate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. She specializes in ancient history and early Christianity, especially the New Testament, with focuses on martyrdom, persecution, disability, enslavement and questions related to marginalized groups. She is the author of God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible. 

Clusters of unnamed, enslaved coauthors and collaborators have been hidden by history behind the sainted individuals credited with writing the New Testament. The essential workers were responsible for producing the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament by making the parchment on which the texts were written, taking dictation, and refining the words of the apostles. As Christian messages grew in influence, enslaved missionaries who undertook the arduous journey across the Mediterranean and along dusty roads to move Christianity to Rome, Spain and North Africa, and into the pages of history. The impact of these enslaved contributors on the spread of Christianity, the development of foundational Christian concepts, and the making of the Bible was enormous, yet their role has been almost entirely overlooked. 

The Armstrong Lecture is made possible by the Homer J. Armstrong Endowment in Religion, established in 1969 in honor of the Rev. Homer J. Armstrong, a longtime trustee of the College. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit religion.kzoo.edu and click on Department Events.