The Red Tent by Anita Diamant- A bestselling fictional account of the life of Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Diamant chose a fascinating era about which enough is known through archaeology and history to give it some grounding in fact, but about which little enough is known to have considerable leeway with fiction. At times her story reads like Bradley’s Mists of Avalon and it becomes slower once the character arrives in Egypt, but the first few chapters are excellent.
Judas, My Brother by Frank Yerby- unfortunately long out of print. Though a major bestselling author during the 50s & 60s, Frank Yerby is most famous for biographical trivia: his number of sales crashed after his readership (mostly white women) learned he was black. Embittered over racism in general and its effect on him in particular, he emigrated to Spain where his output decreased but, in my opinion, the quality of his work increased.
There is a disclaimer at the beginning of this book essentially saying “If you’re a fundamentalist, don’t read this”. It portrays Christ as completely human and with a few personality flaws (among other things, he can’t stand his mother) and Judas as his alter-ego. My favorite aspect is that the research is impeccable, with Yerby even giving the names of characters as they would have been said in Hebrew (e.g. Yehuda ish Kerioth for Judas Iscariot, Tzadoikim for Sadducee, Miryam of Migdal Aglia for Mary Magdalene) before reverting to the vernacular and the differences between Sadducees, Pharisees and other sects perfectly realized. (The worst parts of the novel are when he strays too far into sideplots that really don’t advance the plot.)
Lamb by Christopher Moore. The Gospel according to Biff, Jesus’ childhood buddy. Truly a funny, heretical, thought-provoking book.
Joshua (a.k.a. Jesus) knows he is unique and quite alone in his calling, but what exactly does his Father want of him? Taking liberties with ancient history, Moore works up an adventure tale as Biff and Joshua seek out the three wise men so that Joshua can better understand what he is supposed to do as Messiah. Biff, a capable sinner, tags along and gives Joshua ample opportunities to know the failings and weaknesses of being truly human. With a wit similar to Douglas Adams, Moore pulls no punches: a young Biff has the hots for Joshua’s mom, Mary, which doesn’t amuse Josh much: “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the Prince of Peace never struck anyone.” And the origin of the Easter Bunny is explained as a drunken Jesus gushes his affection for bunnies, declaring, “Henceforth and from now on, I decree that whenever something bad happens to me, there shall be bunnies around.” From Amazon
I was going to suggest that book from the title of the thread. IMHO it is a great book. You can still pick up copies of it from EBay.
I have read most of Frank Yerby’s novels and had no idea that he was black. Of course I wasn’t reading his novels in the 50s and 60s either. The first few novels of his I read were from my Mom’s bookself in the 80s.
Barabbas, by the great Nobel Prize winner Par Lagerkvist, is a very powerful (and short!) novel about the thief who was released by Pilate instead of Jesus. And so it’s a story about the only person in whose place Jesus literally died. It follows Barabbas as he contemplates his very literal salvation and observes signs of the secretly flourishing religion founded on that same crucifixion. It’s interesting to consider this from Barabbas’s perspective as he sees people’s lives changed by the metaphorical analog of his literal salvation.
Well, legally he was. His mother was a full-blooded Seminole and his father was of mixed black, white, and Indian ancestry, which meant he was black and legally second class under the laws of most states due to the one drop rule and that his marriage to his Franco-Spanish wife was invalid in most of the U.S…
In hispictures you can definitely see the Seminole more than the African features.
Before Christopher Moore, there were Michael Moorcock’s Behold the Man and Gore Vidal’s Live from Golgotha, each with an alternate look at the life of Jesus. The first is serious and psychological, the second is scathing and cynical.
Try “Dear and Glorious Physician” (the story of Luke) and “Great Lion of God” (about Paul of Tarsus), both by Taylor Caldwell. These were both well-written novels and not at all heavy-handed with the religious aspect.
If you’re interested in younger books, there’s a YA novel by Gladys Malvern called Behold Your Queen! that tells the story of Esther. I loved it when I was young. (I still love it, but reading it as an adult, I’m kind of uneasy at the subtext that seems to be saying a good woman is subservient to her husband.)
Alto, I also remember reading the Malvern book as a young adult, and enjoying it. Norah Lofts wrote the same story with Esther, and an author who’s name I can’t remember wrote The Star and the Scepter, about Esther’s story. The latter tale is more adult, and does not gloss over the point that each girl’s “interview” with the king was not just talking, but more in the nature of a test run. Esther 2:14 states, of the candidates, “In the evening she went, and in the morning she came back to the harem…”
I like a book by Leonard Wibberly(who also wrote The Mouse that Roared)
titled The Seven Hills. It is a story told in the first person by a rich, cynical Roman freedman, a man in his middle age, named Theophilus, the same person Luke was supposedly writing to. It is a realistic look at the people and events surrounding the developing movement of Christianity. Theophilus has, to say the least, a jaundiced outlook on life, he’s avaricious, and mostly humorless. If someone does him a good turn he wonders what their motive is. Not a “saint” by any means, but some extraordinary experiences leave him wondering about life. Out of print of course, but worth the search.
Dear & Glorious Physician and Great Lion of God both by Taylor Caldwell. They are both out of print, but if you can find them (library?) they are definitely worth the read.
I’m rather fond of Quo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz – I think I may have spelled his name wrong – which is about first-century Christians in Rome. Peter and Paul appear in it, of course, as do Nero and Petronius (who’s quite a fun character).
There was a movie version done in the fifties with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr, but it’s not very good…
Since nobody’s mentioned an obvious one: The Last Temptation by Kazantzakis. And in a similar vein, Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a readably provocative take on the familiar narrative, giving the Devil most of the best lines.
While the action of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece The Master and Margarita is set in the Moscow of the 1920s, a central element is The Master’s novel about Pontius Pilate, and chapters from that novel alternate throughout with chapters set in Moscow. Jesus, Pontius Pilate, and Matthew the Levite all emerge from those chapters as fully realized human characters, each somewhat different than their typical portrayals. It’s an interesting take on the story, supported by historical research in some cases, in other areas more fanciful.
