58 pages • 1 hour read
Christopher MooreLamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Lambs
Throughout the novel, lambs symbolize Joshua, just as lambs are represented in the Bible as a title for Jesus (John 1:29). This symbol emphasizes the Messiah’s innocence and his sacrificial role. In Chapter 7, Biff and Joshua celebrate Passover in Jerusalem as children and witness thousands of lambs gathered for slaughter at the Temple. By sacrificing the animals, the Temple priests believe that they bring God’s blessing on the Israelites. However, Biff is horrified by the killing and wants no part in it. He attempts to save the lamb that he carries, and he refuses to eat the sacrificed animals: “I didn’t eat any of the lamb for that Passover feast. In fact, I’ve never eaten lamb since that day” (93). By refusing to eat lamb, Biff shows that he doesn’t believe that any benefit gained from the sacrifice is worth the suffering of innocents.
Biff’s childhood horror at the lambs’ sacrifice foreshadows his efforts to save Joshua from death. He spends much of the novel protecting the gentle Joshua from harm just as he attempted to shield the lamb. Like the animals in Chapter 7, the Lamb who is destined to save the world is sacrificed in Jerusalem at Passover. Joshua tries to assure Biff that his death is necessary, but Biff has no desire for salvation gained from the suffering of the innocent and succumbs to despair after Joshua’s death. As a symbol for the Messiah, lambs give the novel its title, contribute to character development, and add another layer of meaning to moving scenes.
Crosses
Crosses serve as a motif related to the theme of Resistance to Injustice. In Part 1, the threat of crucifixion is used to intimidate the conquered Israelites into obeying their Roman overlords. This form of execution is deliberately cruel and humiliating, and crosses are raised along roadsides so that the condemned serve as examples to passersby. Biff grows up near the Roman fortress of Sepphoris and recalls how the soldiers executed Jewish revolutionaries along with their relatives and any suspected accomplices: “More than once we saw the road out of Sepphoris lined with crosses and corpses. My people” (63). Crosses—and hence Resistance to Injustice—are immediately associated with death, which Christopher Moore emphasizes with the alliteration of “crosses and corpses. In Chapter 4, the Roman centurion Justus emphasizes crucifixion’s purpose as a punishment specifically for resistance. He tells Joshua about Spartacus’s rebellion and subsequent execution as a lesson that “nothing can stand against Rome” (49). At the start of the novel, the Romans use crucifixion to oppress the Jewish people and punish any who dare to resist the empire’s might.
In Part 6, the Sanhedrin urge the Romans to crucify a fellow Jewish person for daring to defy them. Jakan and his fellow Pharisees prosecute Joshua for blasphemy. They involve Pontius Pilate and other Roman authorities in the proceedings because the Jewish leaders lack the authority to issue a death sentence. Biff sees Joshua’s impending crucifixion as the most grievous injustice imaginable and does all he can to save his friend’s life. However, Joshua sees his death as a form of resistance: “[H]e’s going to allow himself to be killed to show his father that things need to be changed” (395). Chapter 35 drives home the brutality of crucifixion, which emphasizes both the Messiah’s sacrificial love and Biff’s grief and righteous anger for his friend. Joshua’s passion transforms crucifixion from a punishment for resistance into a form of Resistance to Injustice.
Myrrh
Myrrh is a symbol of death. In the ancient world, people used the fragrant tree resin in embalming materials. Myrrh is first mentioned in the novel in Chapter 8 as one of the gifts that the wise men brought to Joshua during his infancy. This gift foreshadows that the Messiah was born to die. Although he understands that his death will bring salvation, he is fully human as well as fully divine. In Chapter 13, Biff mentions that Joshua is “not a myrrh fan” (173); this is a typical example of Moore’s use of colloquial language to generate comedy among tragic topics. Joshua’s aversion to myrrh reflects his fear of death.
In Parts 5 and 6, Joshua’s closest friends anoint him with myrrh to signal the approach of his death. The ointment that Biff uses to tend Joshua’s wounds in Chapter 24 contains myrrh. After emerging from the desert, Joshua begins his public ministry, which culminates in his passion and death. Biff unknowingly foreshadows this with the myrrh. In Chapter 30, Maggie is fully aware of Joshua’s intention to sacrifice himself when she purchases “a small alabaster box” containing “the precious ointments that women used to anoint the bodies of the dead at burial” (403). Five days before his death, Maggie expresses her love and grief by anointing Joshua’s feet and head with the perfumed embalming ointment. As a symbol of death, myrrh offers foreshadowing and shows how the characters grapple with Joshua’s impending sacrifice.
