Preface to an Old Story
The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek by Hebrew writers in order to appeal to an educated Roman audience already familiar with the writings of the Greek philosophers. Insuring therefore that it would appear to the Roman reader that the story of Jesus was that of a Greek philosopher, albeit transposed onto the exotic territory of the Roman Empire's Middle Eastern provinces. Why would they do this, since the stories of the Old Testament were obviously written by Hebrews for Hebrews? Why, except to make the story palatable to those readers exactly on the grounds that a Roman audience would readily accept a tale of an outlaw philosopher and his loose band of radicals.
They would accept such stories as wildly colorful and different from the typically dry Greek dialogues that they were regularly offered. The stories of Christ, deriving in part from stories older than the Old Testament itself, were closer to Roman stories. That is, more primeval, in fact, more Greek, than the erudite plays and philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, Euripides or Aristophanes. The Gospels were stories purported to have taken place in the 'present' day, and for their time may very well have appeared "Ripped from the headlines" of revolt and crucifixion, tales of which would have doubly reached the average person in Rome in distorted and exaggerated form. Therefore a character combining attributes similar to their own gods borrowed from the Greeks and in Greek would prove immensely popular.
The qualities of the Greek Zeus, Hermes and Dionysus as the Roman Juno, Mercury, Bacchus, and the Greco-Roman Apollo, rolled into one hero who was both tragic and triumphant, hounded and persecuted while at the same time hailed and praised by the masses, would have to exert a considerable fascination over those that could read, and the stories could then be told, that is, passed on orally, until artists picked up the themes and bought them to life in vivid pictures like life-size comic books , larger than life in fact, depicting as they did miracles, angels, demons, creation, heaven, hell, and indeed God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, a beatific, bearded sage with eyes half-shut in sublime contemplation of all he had thought, his disciples and followers depicted as awestruck and astounded by his every word and deed.
This was the reaction that was bought by the writers of the tales of the New Testament, and much like the Hollywood moguls of the early 20th century they bought to mute their Jewishness by presenting the tales as not Jewish at all, but Greek. But also like Hollywood, they could not entirely conceive the obvious Jewish origin, mostly stating the fact in passing. In references that are mostly obscured by the stories' action, there are Romans, Gentiles, Philistines, and almost every creed under the sun, as well as Jews.
The following work is written with the intent of exciting the contemporary reader in the same way, of instilling the sense of high drama, adventure and romance experienced by those first Roman readers tired of the rote pageantry and banal pedagogic exposition of the day, analogous to today's celebrity-obsessed tabloid culture and the opinionated bluster of ill-informed media pundits.
The Jesus Christ presented in The Liar's Gospel is not only a product of the imagination, it is a product of an American imagination; an American Jesus motivated by self-interest, albeit caring not for the lilies of the field, which either reap nor sow.
This is a Jesus that wants his reward here on the ground; who has waited long enough to get his due and has worked out the percentage in his favor. It is a Jesus with no illusions; who takes what he wants with both hands, be it land, money or women. It is a Jesus with a rap sheet and bad reputation that he lives up to in spades. His boys are no better, devoted followers that they are, fishermen-cum-grifters, thieves and murderers.
This is and is not the Bible. Like the Bible, the Gangsters is set in the a historical present and is the story of a group of men willing to go the distance, come what may, and who take no foolish chances.
It is what the Bible would be like if it were real-occurring right this minute-to be followed by 2000 years of Atheism.
