User:Steveparker123/Jesus on Thyface

Jesus on Thyface: Social Networking for the Modern Messiah is a humorous, full-colour hardback book that tells the story of Jesus Christ’s last four years on Earth using extracts from the pages of Thyface – a supposed 1st Century forerunner of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Using the purported words of the Messiah, his disciples and principal adversaries, Thyface is a modern retelling of the greatest story ever told.

The book was first published by Simon & Schuster in 2010 and its authorship is jointly attributed to Jesus himself along with Denise Haskew and Steve W Parker, whom Thyface Jesus refers to as his "Holy Ghost writers".

Story
The book begins with the Virgin Mary relating the story of the Archangel Gabriel telling her that she is going to have a baby by the Holy Ghost and that she should call him Emmanuel. However, her husband Joseph objects that this is a girl's name (and a bit slutty), so they settle on Jesus.

The action then moves on to March 29AD, with Jesus joining Thyface and becoming friends with his cousins, John and James Zebedee, whose irreverent approach to life cause the austere John the Baptist to ban them from posting on his scroll. Following an encounter with the Baptist, Jesus spends 40 days in the Wilderness prior to the start of his ministry, where he is tempted by Satan. Meanwhile, the Baptist is accused of being a "radical cleric" by Herod Antipas, governor of Galilee, and imprisoned, from where he releases a blues album, largely mocking the Herods.

Jesus wisely removes himself from Herod's Galilee and preaches in Samaria, attracting a massive following, largely by healing the sick. Curing Simon the Leper, for instance, leads to over 11,000 Thyface friend requests on its own. Jesus appoints 12 apostles, who are mainly family or the offspring of wealthy female backers (Christ's Babes), and with them continues his ministry, attending the Marriage at Cana, delivering the Sermon on the Mount, feeding the 5000 and the 4000, and walking on water. This latter causes great hilarity among the apostles when Simon Peter tries to follow him and promptly sinks like a 'rock'.

Meanwhile, Jesus makes powerful enemies by insisting that power be handed over to the meek. Chief among these are the Sadducee priests, led by the High Priest Joseph ben Caiaphas and Sanhedrin President Annas ben Seth. However, moving against Jesus is difficult, as his following has grown to over two multitudes, so the priests are forced to look for a weak link among his apostles.

So it is that, as Jesus enters Jerusalem in March 33AD for a Passover Lamb Vindaloo, the priests get ready to make their move. But will Herod Antipas, whose popularity is at rock bottom, back the beardies? And more importantly, how will the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate, whose wife Claudia is a massive Jesus fan, react to the priests' sinister plot?

Characters
The key difference in the approach of Jesus on Thyface compared with other versions of the story (eg, The Bible) is that on Thyface readers are given a much greater insight into the personalities of the secondary characters, such as the apostles and their enemies the priests.

Although much of the action takes place on Jesus's Thyface scroll, it is also told from the perspective of several other characters, including John the Baptist, John and James Zebedee, Mary Magdalene, James the Less (than most up top), Simon Peter, Joseph ben Caiaphas, Simon the Pharisee, Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate and Satan.

Reaction
The first review of Jesus on Thyface came from respected UK trade publication, The Bookseller, two months prior to publication. In her review of books for the Christmas 2010 market, Caroline Sanderson described it as, "a wonderfully sustained parody you can safely give to believers and non-believers alike".