The expulsion of the merchants from the Temple of Jerusalem – detailed in a few lines from the Gospel of St. Matthew – is the starting point for an original narrative that unfolds over three different time periods: 33 AD, 1635, and the present day.
In the first part of the book, set in the Jerusalem of Christ’s time, the biblical episode is seen from the viewpoint of one of the merchants, a ruined peasant who had come to the city in search of better days and found in the temple trade, the springboard for amazing projects. Christ’s journey is seen indirectly through the eyes of his obscure contemporary, and daily life in the Holy Land is described with humor and wit.
In the second part of the book, the narrative takes a leap in time and space. In 1635, the young priest Nicolau arrives at a small Jesuit mission in southern Brazil and finds himself in a distressing situation: the sudden death of the priest who ran the mission leaves him in charge of an Indigenous community whose language he does not speak. An outsider offers to act as an interpreter, but his shady nature is soon revealed.
The third and final part of the book takes place in the present day, in the city that grew out of the Jesuit village. The left-leaning populace is celebrating the victory of the mayor. A reporter witnesses these changes and, at the same time, recalls, with former schoolmates, the play that the group staged when he was a child, based on the episode of the expulsion of the merchants from the Temple.
The three stories intertwine and illuminate each other, unfolding the thematic core of the biblical episode in unexpected ways, with various amusing and dramatic possibilities, and focusing on its moral implications. As in the award-winning The woman who wrote the Bible, Scliar uses the biblical narrative to create a very personal and humorous panorama of the dilemmas of our time.
