Matthew

I think if I could supply only one book to an alien in order to explain Christianity, this would be it. It contains a reasonable overview of Jesus’s life, a chunk of expositional theology and many of the most-quoted Son-of-Godisms including the crucial (and beautiful) Sermon on the Mount.

The interesting thing about having heard all of these stories at school and then revisiting them as an adult is how insurrectionary a figure Jesus is.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. (10:34)
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (10:37)
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (19:24)

Nobody tell the authorities! No wonder that old Marxist Pasolini used this Gospel as the source for his extraordinary masterpiece.