Dukore points out several Biblical references in The Threepenny Opera, citing both obvious allusions and ones that are cloaked in metaphoric language. Of the latter, Dukore argues that there are numerous examples that compare the character Macheath to Jesus Christ.

Several critics have quoted Brecht's statement that the work which made the greatest impression on him was the Bible, Although Martin Esslin discusses the biblical quality of Brecht's language, and although Von Thomas O. Brandt cites a number of biblical quotations in Brecht's plays (without, however, identifying their exact sources), Brecht's use of the Bible has, so far as I have been able to discover, been given only cursory notice. In this article, I should like to examine biblical references in The Threepenny Opera.

Brandt refers to The Threepenny Opera's "Bibelcollage"; his term is accurate. Following the Prologue, the play begins with the Bible-carrying Peachum singing a...