The Gospel according to Jesus Christ

Saramago's writing in this book traces a biography based on the life of Christ and not on the Gospel, which is not mentioned in the original title of the novel. The Gospel, although it appears as a general reference for the narrative environment of this work, is not a decisive reference, as the treatment in the novel here aims to scrutinize the story more than it scrutinizes the Gospel. Saramago deals with the biography of Jesus the Son in two phases: the first as a son of man: Joseph the carpenter, who precedes him to the cross. The second: the awakening of his questioning about the truth of divinity after seeing his father crucified with a group of Galilean rebels. Saramago's novel, this one, is distinguished from other works that include the life of Christ, especially the works of Nikos Kazantzakis, because it did not fall under the usual confessional language of mysticism or religious narratives, which made this novel more connected to the land, humanly and geographically, and to events, saving it from any proselytizing tendency.