Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus

Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus is a collection of Bible stories adapted by Chester Brown.  For instance, "Cain and Abel" is written so that Abel defies YHWH, who had told Adam and Eve to work the fields.  Instead, Abel hunts animals and keeps them as chattel.  When Cain gives YHWH a burnt offering of vegetables from the field, Abel gives YHWH a burnt offering of flesh, the latter of which YHWH prefers.  This is a recurring theme in Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, the story of the prodigal son who wastes his father's money but is loved by his father nonetheless.

The main theme of the book is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, sexually misbehaved, leading to Jesus' birth.  This is not a new theory; in fact, it is one thousands of years old.  What adolescent, upon learning the secrets of reproduction, hasn't questioned the veracity of Mary's story?  The idea is that the author of the Book of Matthew wanted to hint at Mary possibly being a prostitute or a sexually misbehaving woman by putting the names of famous prostitutes in Mary's genealogy.

I didn't read all of the notes, afterward, and acknowledgements, which are lovingly lettered, as they were in Brown's previous work, Paying for It.  I didn't skip them either.  I found them as tedious as they are necessary, and someday I hope to read through more of them.  I'm no tyro when it comes to Bible studies, although my interest in the Bible has waned over the past decade.  My opinion is that you find what you're looking for when you dig too deeply into it, rather than the truth.