Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of violence, miscarriage, homicide, and suicide.

The angel Raziel is tasked with assisting in the writing of a new Gospel by Levi (who is nicknamed Biff). Raziel objects because he believes that the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered Biff was excluded from the four previous Gospels for good reason. His superior, the archangel Stephan, informs him that these orders come directly from the Son, who “feels it’s time the whole story is told” (2).

Raziel goes to a hill outside Jerusalem, gathers the dust of Biff’s remains, and restores the man to life. He also bestows the gift of tongues upon the new evangelist, allowing him to speak any language. When Raziel reveals that 2,000 years have passed since his death, Biff punches the angel and swears at him for being late. The angel remarks, “[n]ice talk to a messenger of the Lord” (4), and Biff quips that he has a gift.

Raziel takes Levi bar Alphaeus (Biff), to a hotel room in St. Louis and instructs him to write his Gospel. However, the newly resurrected apostle is distracted and frightened by the unfamiliar technology that he witnesses in the modern world.