The Real Jesus Christ

"Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff" is a fictional account of Jesus's life told through a character named Biff. He is Jesus's (known as Joshua in the novel) best friend and tells of his upbringing from a young boy until his death on the crucifix. Moore's intention in writing this novel is to make Jesus appear more human, less perfect in a sense. He wants to give the reader a more personal relationship with Jesus and he does that by introducing flaws that the Bible did not originally convey. Although Jesus is described in the Bible to be the only perfect person, devoid of any sin or impure nature, Joshua in "Lamb" does not care if others around him sin, depending on the type and severity of the sin, he exhibits normal human-like emotions such as anger and frustration, an aspect of his nature on which the Bible never sheds light, and he displays companionship, another aspect of his life which was also not in the Bible.

When most people think of the Jesus that has been portrayed by the Bible, they imagine a man who preaches the Word of God throughout his life and corrects people's sinful actions so that the world may be a better place. In "Lamb", Joshua does not actually care if others around him sin. In fact, sometimes he encourages it. For example, when Biff tries to explain sex to Joshua, Biff tries to get Joshua to have sex with a harlot. Joshua replies "No, you go ahead. Just describe what's happening and what you're feeling. I have to understand sin." (113) In this way, Jesus is encouraging his friend to commit adultery because he wants to try to understand what it is like. This characteristic is controversial because most would think that Jesus would condemn Biff for sinning and try to explain to him why sex is evil until after marriage, but author Christopher Moore introduces a different view that is entirely possible.

Another important detail that Moore introduces to the life and travels of Jesus Christ is his emotions. Because he is thought in Christianity to be the son of God without sin, he is often thought of as always having been happy, serious, or sad about the sins of our world, however it is never written in the Bible that something angered him or frustrated him as occurred in "Lamb". In the beginning of the story, Biff angers him and he punches him in the face - clearly not an action one would expect from the Messiah. Later in the story on the way to Balthasar's palace, their group is ambushed by bandits and the guards defend their pack by fighting them off. While Joshua is trying to heal a man, one of the guards shoots him with a bow and arrow. Moore describes that "howling with rage, Joshua made a gesture as if he were striking the air with his open hand and the guard was lifted back off his camel and slammed into the ground.... He was blind."(140) This again shows his even Jesus was human and could be angered to the point