In the leadup to Easter, I listened to James Earl Jones narrate the four Gospels. I then read Jose Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, and then Christopher Moore's The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Pal.
My word (logos), what an amazing book. The angel who tasks Biff with writing his account of Jesus' life describes him as "such an asshole". Biff is a sleazy, lazy, sarcastic hanger-on, and perhaps one of my favourite narrators I've ever had the joy to read.
To contrast Moore's version with Saramago, where the Nobel Prize winner portrays Jesus as a doubtful, lustful, hesitant man who pulls against God's plan, there is very little in Biff's Gospel which would be considered sacreligious in its portrayal of Jesus, aside from some occassional swearing, some suppressed attraction to Mary, and a load of doubt. I'm not a Christian, but one would have to doggedly maintain a view of Jesus as a stoic divine Superman to not find this a cherished portrayal (reminding me of the debate in The Name of the Rose: did Jesus laugh?).
If you've read the Gospels, you probably share my exasperation with the number of times the Apostles just don't get it. "They did not understand." "What does he mean by this?" I came away from some of them thinking they must be the 12 dumbest bastards in all the Levant. Moore uses this to great comedic effect. Peter is so named for being as dumb as a box of rocks, but for the power of his faith it's that dumb box of rocks Jesus will build his church on.
Jesus' teachings of peace and the kingdom for all is preserved, but Biff gets to be the Apostle to the Cynics, in pointing out funny contextual contradictions or fallacies. "You said I'd already commited adultery in my heart, so why not enjoy it?" Miracles are made funny (the blind restored to sight are underwhelmed that the only colour in the Judean desert is brown).
Beyond the universally known stories, there are constant zingers for those with a more line-by-line knowledge of the Gospels (which I don't have, but recognised from my recent JEJ listening).
Moore also draws from a large body of non-canonical (apocryphal) stories of Jesus, from the very young trickster god in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, to apocryphal versions of canonical stories (writing of mens sins in the dust), to later speculations that Jesus learned his wisdom from the three Magi in the East: Hindus, Buddhists, and Confuscians. Some might take issue in the notion that Jesus had to learn from others, but honestly it gives the story a universality of the message, which I think is more appealing.
by Gay_For_Gary_Oldman