The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Complete Summary!

The novel The gospel according to Jesus Christ It was very controversial at the time of publication, since in this it questions the holiness of Jesus, in this article the summary of this story is going to be shown.

The gospel according to Jesus Christ

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ was a novel published in 1991 by the author José Saramago who is well known for his works, stories and poems. He was born in the year 1922 in Portugal, his literary works have been highlighted throughout the European continent just as in other continents he gets praise for his writings.

This author won a Nobel Prize in 1998 in the area of ​​literature for the sets of innovations in his writing and how human reality demonstrates in the narration of his works, marking a style of irony through the use of analogies so that you can better understand the message you want to give.

One of the characteristics of his creations is that they range from fiction to reality that can be lived as people; in this way it gives the reader a new way of exploring writing. One detail that he gave to his works is that it allows readers to feel a closeness to the narrative, facilitating its reading and increasing the experience in literature.

In his novel The Gospel according to Jesus Christ, he gives a different perspective on the actions of Jesus, since he seeks to expose that God acts in a selfish way, and in turn questions the holiness that the Lord Jesus presents, thanks to the narrative implemented in this work helped to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

It is based from the conception of Jesus Christ for the beginning of the novel The Gospel according to Jesus Christ, taking reference to the canonical books; in his narrative he incorporated his ironic style to give an understanding of the ideas and vision of this story with a new perspective, so that a personal message about this story can be established.

In the gospel according to Jesus Christ it is loaded with irony along with sarcasm to argue God's selfishness and question God's benevolence and mercy, it is responsible for showing a vision where actions are exposed as cruel and without love. For this reason this work was very controversial and criticized in its publication for this vision that denies the majesty of the Lord.

To explain more of this new vision, it is based on the Gospel of Saint Luke in chapter 1 from verse 1 to 4; At the beginning, it narrates how Jesus is the son of Joseph, a 20-year-old carpenter, and Mary, who was a 16-year-old woman. In this novel it is spoken how Jesus was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, but rather by the seed of Joseph together with God.

Due to the great complaints and criticisms by the authorities of the Catholic Church together with the Christian believers for changing holy scripture, they caused the author to move to Spain, since the controversy of this subject was very great, for which he was accused of committing blasphemy by the followers of Christ.

The facts that are exposed in the novel follow the course of José's life, where María's pregnancy, her other children, her interactions with other people and also her death are discussed; this fact being a great difference to what is written in the New Testament; In spite of all this work has been praised for its way of exposing a new vision to the history of Jesus Christ and for its way of narrating the events.

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Summary

The gospel according to Jesus Christ written by José Saramago is not separated by chapters, its narration is continuous and covers 500 pages. The reading is told from a third person, the vision of him makes a difference in Christian beliefs; Although this novel is not broken into chapters, it can be separated into two parts, the promise that deals with the first 18 years of Jesus and the second part is based on his following years until the crucifixion.

The story of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ deviates from the Christian icons told by the church, the narration is mixed with sarcasm and irony related to the attitude of Jesus as God's mercy. To have a better view of the narration of this novel, the summary divided into two parts is shown below, where the main and important facts of this literature are explained:

Part One: Jesus' First 18 Years

At the beginning of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, the story of Joseph is told, who was 20 years old and who is described as a modest man who worked in the carpentry, describes him with a fair conduct so that his actions showed kindness and justice in his Jewish religion, in the same way he helped the people around him whenever he could.

In the case of María, it is described as a 16-year-old woman, who had the occupation of weaving, was characterized by having a straight, humble and kind attitude; the actions that she carried out of her reflected her as a neat lady and also responsible for her, for this reason she was engaged to José, who married to live and be in a humble house.

Being newlyweds, it is described how María cared for José fulfilling her role as wife, while he worked as a carpenter, however he did not have much experience with big jobs but this did not prevent his work, and he supported them economically without any problem.

The author denies the virginity of Mary at the time of conceiving Jesus, since it is described that he was conceived in the marriage of Joseph and Mary. Four months after her marriage ceremony, the angel visited Mary in the form of a beggar, with the intention of telling her that she is pregnant and that this child is the hope of humanity.

When this angel communicates with Mary, he asks her for something to eat, which she agrees with Joseph, it is at that moment that the angel adopts his heavenly form, presenting himself as the archangel Gabriel. His clothes took on a shine and shone exposing his supernatural power to Maria.

So Mary asks him how he could know about her pregnancy if she has not presented any indication of it, to this the angel just looked at her and showed her with the brightness of his eyes the answer that he simply knew, he also gave her a warning which was that he did not speak anything about this event, so he handed a container of food to Maria.

In that container was a different earth, since it shone, leaving Mary and Joseph surprised. Then the angel acquired his beggar's clothes again and left the house, Mary was still at the entrance of the house, so Joseph was worried because he was late because of this he approached her to ask what had happened to the beggar.

María answers José that children shine in the eyes of mothers, being shocked with the answer, so he details María's face noticing a characteristic shine, he tells her and she answers that it is the brightness of your son, At that moment, he hands him the container that the beggar gave him so that he can see the shining earth that he had given him.

José begins to verify the shiny earth, so he moves and removes it, however it maintains its brightness, due to this, to clarify his doubts, he went to the council of the elders to consult this situation. He asks if they know or have heard of any beggars who were wandering in the town of Nazareth.

But not knowing about this beggar, José was advised to bury the container in a land near his house in such a way that it does not generate any evil or good, but remains neutral. Later José is informed of the census that has to be done by Herod's decree, because of this his neighbor Ananias told him that this process has to be done to account for the contribution of each one of the people of the town.

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As José was from Bethlehem, he had to make a trip to comply with the royal decree; but while he was on his way José could notice a different and strange figure, which presented the characteristics of the beggar as María had told him, however she seemed not to notice her presence despite her that he was taking care of her.

When they arrived in Bethlehem, Mary was in labor pains, and they could not find a place to stay, so when looking for a place they only found a cave to take refuge. At that moment Jesus was born and the three wise men appeared and gave various gifts consisting of bread, milk and cheese.

After this, the child Jesus is surrounded, and at that time King Herod suffered from severe pain generating an illness in his bodily state, as well as an itching and even gangrene in his genitals; Due to this, bad odors are generated, so the king reached a state of madness and paranoia.

Due to this state of paranoia, he came to the conclusion that his children wanted to kill him to take away his throne; because of this he ordered his execution to ensure his kingship. After this he had dreams with the prophet Micah, so I relate it to the prophecy that spoke of a child who would be born in Bethlehem and would be the king of the Jews.

Due to this, he established a new decree which consisted of the execution of any child under the age of three, due to his fear of losing his kingdom. When José heard this new errand in a conversation between the soldiers, he had to run to warn María not to leave the cave, in those days they heard the screams produced by the execution of the children.

The angel Gabriel visits Mary at the moment when Joseph is outside the cave, he tells her that if they were not in that cave the child Jesus would have died, that the deaths of the other children were predestined, in the same way as the crime that José committed, leaving María impressed by what he said about her husband.

He explains that Joseph did not notify the people of the execution order, something he could have done but did not, which makes him as guilty as King Herod. The angel disappeared while Mary looked at Jesus, after this event they moved back to Nazareth where they live in a humble house and it is known that many years have passed where Mary and Joseph have 8 more children apart from Jesus.

Part Two: Crucifixion of Jesus

In this part it is explained that José dies at the age of 33 crucified because he is involved in a group of rebels. It is also shown how Jesus constantly had bad dreams that motivate him to travel to Bethlehem. When he sets out on the road, he finds out how his father, Joseph, did not notify the people of Herod's decree, so he did not prevent the deaths of the children.

Because of this, Jesus feels a great guilt for this fact, as he is the firstborn of his father Joseph, he acquires the inheritance of this sin. For this reason he got a great burden and responsibility thus losing peace in his actions; however after a while he meets Mary Magdalene and becomes her partner.

Jesus also turns water into wine at a village wedding, multiplies the number of fish, heals the sick, casts out demons from people, and many other types of miracles, all in the name of God. Due to this he gained much popularity among the people, and everyone knew of his benevolent deeds.

This part describes how Jesus had an encounter with God, in which he establishes a conversation where he questions his divine origin, since he is 100% man, that is, he could feel like any human, however God convinces that Joseph was not the one who got the conception of Mary, but it was He.

With this, Jesus agrees to make a pact with God, where he is going to be sacrificed, that he is going to experience bloody acts and contempt on the part of the people; ending in that he will die on the cross as an object of expiation for the people of the world; With this Jesus embarks on carrying out various works where he assured this encounter but not everyone believed him.

At various times during Jesus' mission, the angel Gabriel accompanied him, however at this point it is shown that it was not an angel but rather the devil, so it is understood that it was he who accompanied Mary while she was in her state of pregnancy, implying that she was a being that was against the designs sent by God and sought to avoid the creation of various religions in the future.

In the gospel according to Jesus Christ the devil is described as a being who is constantly seeking forgiveness for his sins, he is also established as the other side of divinity. God denies him that forgiveness, for this reason the devil finds his existence justified since it is based on the opposition of God.

After this, Jesus looks for a way to break the pact he made with God where he agreed to be sacrificed for humanity due to the panic and fear he had when he noticed that his time was approaching to suffer various painful and bloody acts. He also sought to break this pact because he knew that he was going to start a crusade for the Catholic religion that was going to arise when he was crucified.

However, he could not escape from this pact established with God, so he returned with Mary Magdalene and continued with his works. The devil continued to accompany Jesus even when he went on a donkey to Bethlehem, after which he was imprisoned and condemned to be crucified; at this point he describes how Jesus thinks humans are used to augment God's divinity.