Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

before dawn. We met near the well and filled the waterskins our fathers had given us, then ate our breakfasts, flatbread and cheese, as we walked together to Sepphoris. The road, although packed dirt most of the way, was smooth and easy to walk. (If Rome saw to anything in its territories, it was the lifelines of its army.) As we walked we watched the rock-strewn hills turn pink under the rising sun, and I saw Joshua shudder as if a chill wind had danced up his spine.
    “The glory of God is in everything we see,” he said. “We must never forget that.”
    “I just stepped in camel dung. Tomorrow let’s leave after it’s light out.”
    “I just realized it, that is why the old woman wouldn’t live again. I forgot that it wasn’t my power that made her arise, it was the Lord’s. I brought her back for the wrong reason, out of arrogance, so she died a second time.”
    “It squished over the side of my sandal. Well, that’s going to smell all day.”
    “But perhaps it was because I did not touch her. When I’ve brought other creatures back to life, I’ve always touched them.”
    “Is there something in the Law about taking your camel off the road to do his business? There should be. If not the Law of Moses, then the Romans should have one. I mean, they won’t hesitate to crucify a Jew who rebels, there should be some punishment for messing up their roads. Don’t you think? I’m not saying crucifixion, but a good smiting in the mouth or something.”
    “But how could I have touched the corpse when it is forbidden by the Law? The mourners would have stopped me.”
    “Can we stop for a second so I can scrape off my sandal? Help me find a stick. That pile was as big as my head.”
    “You’re not listening to me, Biff.”
    “I am listening. Look, Joshua, I don’t think the Law applies to you. I mean, you’re the Messiah, God is supposed to tell you what he wants, isn’t he?”
    “I ask, but I receive no answer.”
    “Look, you’re doing fine. Maybe that woman didn’t live again because she was stubborn. Old people are that way. You have to throw water on my grandfather to get him up from his nap. Try a young dead person next time.”
    “What if I am not really the Messiah?”
    “You mean you’re not sure? The angel didn’t give it away? You think that God might be playing a joke on you? I don’t think so. I don’t know the Torah as well as you, Joshua, but I don’t remember God having a sense of humor.”
    Finally, a grin. “He gave me you as a best friend, didn’t he?”
    “Help me find a stick.”
    “Do you think I’ll make a good stonemason?”
    “Just don’t be better at it than I am. That’s all I ask.”
    “You stink.”
    “What have I been saying?”
    “You really think Maggie likes me?”
    “Are you going to be like this every morning? Because if you are, you can walk to work alone.”

    The gates of Sepphoris were like a funnel of humanity. Farmers poured out into their fields and groves, craftsmen and builders crowded in, while merchants hawked their wares and beggars moaned at the roadside. Joshua and I stopped outside the gates to marvel and were nearly run down by a man leading a string of donkeys laden with baskets of stone.
    It wasn’t that we had never seen a city before. Jerusalem was fifty times larger than Sepphoris, and we had been there many times for feast days, but Jerusalem was a Jewish city—it was the Jewish city. Sepphoris was the Roman fortress city of Galilee, and as soon as we saw the statue of Venus at the gates we knew that this was something different.
    I elbowed Joshua in the ribs. “Graven image.” I had never seen the human form depicted before.
    “Sinful,” Joshua said.
    “She’s naked.”
    “Don’t look.”
    “She’s completely naked.”
    “It is forbidden. We should go away from here, find your father.” He caught me by my sleeve and dragged me through the gates into the city.
    “How can they allow that?” I asked. “You’d think that our people would tear it down.”
    “They did, a band of Zealots. Joseph told me. The Romans caught them and crucified them by this road.”
    “You never told me that.”
    “Joseph told me not to speak of it.”
    “You could see her breasts.”
    “Don’t think about it.”
    “How can I not think about it? I’ve never seen a breast without a baby attached to it. They’re more—more friendly in pairs like that.”
    “Which way to where we are supposed to work?”
    “My father said