The scariest book I've ever read

In 1998, I was 14 years old and visiting my best friend for 3 weeks where she lived in Germany, and randomly picked a book over her family's shelves. It looked interesting because it had to do with history, archeology, and Israel. 

It was the scariest book I've ever read.

The book was A Skeleton in God's Closet by Paul L. Maier, and while I knew it was fiction, its ramifications were terrifying. It wasn't paranormal or horror (although I felt sick with horror, and it did involve a skeleton); it was regular Christian fiction. I remember staying up until 2am to finish it because I had to know. The sinking pit in my stomach, my racing heart (and mind), wouldn't let me go to sleep until I reach the end and verified that even in this fiction.

Without giving away what the book is about, the reader follows a Biblical scholar/professor and archeologist after they make an "impossible" find in a tomb in Israel. Over the course of this year-long journey, its implications rattle the faith of millions around the world and have far-reaching impact—shaking economies and religious followers the world over. 

I recently re-read this book, which is why I'm reviewing it here. While written in an older style, I loved "revisiting" Israel in this book, as the hero travels from Galilee to Masada, to Jerusalem, Jordan, Egypt, the Vatican, the UK, the US, and back again. While I did enjoy that, the romance that builds throughout those visits is distracting, as well as unrealistic (even though stereotypical). To me, it detracts from the story. As for the story itself, I also (because I knew how it ended, haha) was better able to deal with the story from an objective perspective, letting me fully grasp the breadth of this narrative. It really is incredible - and best of all, while fiction, still supports what I know to be true with every fiber of my being. 

You can purchase this book here on Amazon! And come back next week, where we'll talk about it's sequel!

Pontius Pilate by Paul L. Maier

Here's another one for fans of Biblical fiction or anything having to do with ancient Rome! 

Pontius Pilate by Paul L. Maier is an older novel, published in 1968, and is a thorough exploration of the governance and career of Pontius Pilate, starting from his first appointment to Judea, his 10 years there, and his return to Rome. 

Being that he lived during one of the most fascinating times in Rome's turbulent history, it's an interesting story anyway. But throw in his key role during Jesus' trial, and it makes for an interesting read for any lover of history, especially Roman or Biblical. Obviously, this book is fiction, but it's so well researched that it gives great insight into a piece of what was going on during that time. I also love that it was written from Pilate's perspective, as it is a unique one we haven't explored before.

Because this book is from 1968, it is written in an older style and is a bit of a slower read—but that doesn't take away from its subject. You can find it here on Amazon!

Tea with Hezbollah by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis

When I first heard about Tea with Hezbollah by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis, I was fascinated by the idea. From the very first line, I was hooked.

The premise of the book is that in 2009, author Ted Dekker and his friend and international expert in Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations, author Carl Medearis, flew to the Middle East with one purpose: to meet with Islamic leaders, drink tea, and ask them what they think about Jesus' parable of the Great Samaritan, a famous teaching on loving your neighbors.

Can you tell why I was hooked immediately?

The first thing I noticed, and honestly, it is definitely a small point I want to make, is that I didn't realize how funny Ted Dekker is. I've read many of his books, which fall in the genre of "Christian thriller". I've enjoyed them, but many were also 'above me' because of his sheer brilliance. I've enjoyed his books; but I've never known that he is just plain funny. It made this book so enjoyable to journey with him and Carl throughout the Middle East.

That aside, this book is incredible. The depth of detail and insight the authors used in their journeys kept me entranced, as I learned about people and places I've never seen, been, or met before. There was so much for me to take away as a student of people and culture, including basic practices and values of Islam that I didn't previously know.

I also appreciated how the authors published their interviews as they were spoken, not re-written from the ears and perspectives of the author, but literally transcribed to see the meanings and intention of the subjects, who were:

• Abdul Fadeel Al Kusi of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt
• the Bin Laden brothers in Saudi Arabia
• Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah  in Lebanon
• Bedouin Prince in Lebanon
• Hezbollah Sheik Nabil Qaouk in Lebanon
• Mufti Abdul Fattah Al Bizem of Damascus, Syria
• Mufti Sheik Ekrima Sa'id Sabril of Jerusalem, Israel
• A leader in non-violence in Bethlehem, Israel
• A top leader of Hamas in the West Bank
• A leader of one of the 700 remaining Samaritans in Israel
• and many more, including taxi drivers and random people.

This is why I was so fascinated, because Jesus is known in Islam as being a great prophet - not the greatest prophet (who is Mohammed), but a good teacher. Many of His teachings are in the Quoran. This is why the story of the Good Samaritan is known throughout all of these groups. To read the views, thoughts, and perspectives of these Muslim leaders on a well-known teaching of Christ was fascinating. I'm not going to try to summarize it, because I can't.

Tea with Hezbollah gave me so much to think about, and I am thankful to have read it! Click on the link or the picture above to purchase it on Amazon - I highly recommend it!

Seeking Allah, Find Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

At first glance, it could seem like this week's book feature has nothing to do with Israel. But since 60% of the population of Israel is Arab, and Islam also claims Jerusalem to be a Holy City, there's a strong connection. 

In Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Nabeel Qureshi describes his journey as a devout Muslim from a Pakistani American family who eventually came to follow Jesus as Lord. 

This book is incredible. Qureshi's writing drew me in, and his story is so powerful. But what I loved, almost as much as his journey to becoming a Christ follower, was how much I learned about Islam through this book—and Eastern culture as well. Through his story, I learned about what he believed and why, giving me a greater understanding of basic teachings and beliefs of Islam.

He also gave so many insights of being an Easterner in the West who is wrestling with converting to a 'Western' religion (hopefully this series on the global early church refutes that last claim) and I wanted to share a few of them here. The most heartbreaking were how he agonized over the affect his conversion would have on his family (and did have). While this is difficult to understand in an individualist culture, he does a great job of explaining this on a basic level with a simple example in Chapter 18: "Honor and Authority". 

"Islamic cultures," Qureshi explains, "tend to establish people of high status as authorities, whereas the authority in Western culture is reason itself. These alternative seats of authority permeate the mind, determining the moral outlook of whole societies.... Much of the West's inability to understand the East stems from the paradigmatic schism between honor-shame cultures and innocence-guilt cultures [the West]. This reliance on positional authority explains some characteristics in parts of the Muslim world that confound many Westerners, such as the continued practices of honor killings, child brides of 6 or younger, and blood feuds. For one reason or another, the prevailing sources of social authority in these regions deem these customs acceptable, perhaps even preferable. No amount of sheer reason is going to change these practices, nor will externally imposed prohibitions.... If there is no dishonor, it is not wrong" (pp. 108-109).

The example he gives is a simple one, where as kids, he and his friends would order water at fast-food restaurants, then go get soft drinks instead. But one day, a friend of his was caught getting Mountain Dew Code Red instead of water. An employee said, "You ordered water; you can't get soda!"

"At this," Qureshi says, "many people turned to see the commotion and my friend immediately blushed..... For my friend, this was the moment that made his actions a poor choice [not the actual stealing of the soft drink]. He had suffered dishonor in front of many. Stealing the soda was not the issue for him before being caught. In fact, it was still not the issue after being caught. As strange as it might sound to Westerners, it was more dishonorable for him to be called out by a minimum-wage employee than to be caught stealing soda. So he denied it, asserting firmly, 'I am getting water!' He filled the rest of the cup with water and walked away from the counter, as if were perfectly normal for water to be a deep, bubbly pink" (page 109).

This is fascinating to me, because it is such a different way of thinking than an innocence-guilt culture. It made me think of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes' commentary on the story of David and Bathsheba (and confirmed this analysis of the story from an Eastern perspective). 

Anyway, exploration of Eastern culture is not the point of this book, but I picked up on it because it's something that I am learning more about—and it was impossible for Nabeel Qureshi to tell his story without incorporating it in. I loved every second of reading this book, and praise God for his testimony! 

I highly recommend this book! If you are interested, you can get it here on Amazon! And if you have read this book, I'd love to know your thoughts below!

*Nabeel Qureshi went on to teach with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in 2016 and went to be with the Lord in 2017. 

**For more on honor and shame in Eastern cultures, please check out these posts!

A Multitude of all Peoples: the early church in Asia

For the last several weeks, we've peeked at the history of the early church in Africa and the Middle East, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. 

I say "peeked" because I just choose small things that stood out to me, in hopes that it inspires you to go read this book and fully explore Bantu's work. 

This week, we're going to explore his chapter on the early church in Asia. Like the previous posts, I'm just going to point out what stood out to me the most:

• Christianity entered Persia through Jewish communities no later than the 2nd century, and over the next 200 years, while Christians in the Roman Empire experienced severe persecution, this was not the case for Syriac-speaking Persian Christians. This means it was safer for Christians to live in places like Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan than in Greece or Italy! (pp. 165-167)
• As Christians from the Roman Empire fled east to the the Persian Empire, the government began to be suspicious of all Christians, connecting Christianity with the Roman Empire. "The Western cultural captivity of the Church began under Constantine, and the Persian Christians were the first non-Western Christians to suffer the consequences of this phenomenon" (i.e. people today thinking that Christianity is the 'white man's religion'). p. 170
• The Nicene Creed is written in the collectivist 'we' versus the Western "I", showing the Eastern influence of thinking in its creation (p. 172). To read more on this topic, check out this post. 
• In the 7th century, the Church continued to expand East, from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to the earliest Christian mission to China (p. 177). 9th-century Syriac Christian manuscripts have been found in a monastery in China dating back to the 5th century! (p. 191)
• "In the medieval period, the Church of the East experienced some of the greatest missionary success and expansion of any Christian community in history, starting in Persian territory and extending all the way to the Pacific and Indian ocean" (pp. 179-180).
• Mongol leader Ghenghis Khan was tolerant of Christianity in the lands he conquered, including China (p. 212)
• The decline of Christianity in Central and East Asia began with Islamic persecution at the beginning of the 14th century (p. 216).

That's it for this series on A Multitude of All Peoples! What did you think? I'm purposely not covering the chapter on the Church in the Western world for one reason - I want to give full focus to how the church began throughout the non-Western world. However, I do want to leave this series with a quote from Bantu's conclusion:

"The tendency for Western culture to act as the barometer of Christian orthodoxy is a trend that reaches back to the Romanization of Christianity. It is important to recognize and lament the reality of the Western, white cultural captivity of Christianity, and for the people of God to take responsibility for the genocide wrought on countless millions in the name of (Western) Christianity. It is equally incumbent to recall that the Christian faith did not have its beginnings—nor the totality of its history embedded in white supremacy.....

This point is crucial, as contemporary non-Western non-Christians can easily dismiss the rapid growth of Christianity in the non-Western world as simply a function of Western colonialism and US American globalization.... 

Cognizance of Christianity's deep African and Asian roots dispels the common sense of indebtedness of Christianity to the Western world. Rather, early African and Asian Christianity provides an entry point free from Western dominance for a contemporary non-Western convert to Christianity" (pp. 220-221).

and

"The Western, white cultural captivity of the church [the belief that it is the 'white man's religion'] is the single greatest obstacle for people coming to faith in Christ....Christianity was expelled from China twice for cultural, rather than theological reasons....If it is the desire of the Church to exist deeply rooted for the long term for all nations, tribes, and tongues, it is necessary for the Gospel to be stripped of any geocultural association" (p. 225). 

My hope for every reader out there is what I experienced in reading this book: a greater appreciation and understanding of the history of the Church as a whole. It is so rich and way beyond the depths that even Bantu could plumb—although I know I'll be coming back to this book again and again to re-learn and gain greater understanding, as it was too much to take in for a first read-through. This book is definitely going on the shelf! 

I hope you enjoyed this series; I most definitely did! If you are interested in reading this book, you can purchase it here on Amazon!

A Multitude of all Peoples: the early church in the Middle East

For the past 2 weeks, we explored the history of the church in Africa, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. I hope those brief posts made you want to get this book and read more about the first African Christians.

Now, we're moving on to the early church in the Middle East!

Again, there's just so much that Vince L. Bantu shows the reader, and I feel the best way to go about this is to highlight some of the things that stood out to me. Hopefully this will continue to whet your appetite for this incredible book! So first, we're going to start with Israel's immediate neighbors:

• The term "Christian" was first used in Antioch, in Syria, but over the centuries, "there have been many Christian communities various ecclesiastical, national, and ethnic affiliations that shared a common heritage root in the Syriac-speaking world" (p. 119)
• Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic that began in Turkey, and became the dominant language of Asian Christianity, even until the medieval period. The Syriac Bible was translated no later than the 2nd century (could have been at the end of the first century). The Syriac Old Testament is unique because it was translated directly from Hebrew instead of the Greek Septuagint (pp. 120-121) 
• Arabia is one of the regions with the earliest presence of Christianity, because Paul went to what was likely northwest Arabia and Jordan.
• There were Syriac-speaking Persian Christians living in Qatar until the 6th century.
• Some of the earliest Arabic inscriptions date back to 340—2 centuries before the birth of Muhammed—and were Christian in nature. A few even had crosses, and this means the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed in some of the earliest words written in the Arabic language (p. 147).
• A decade before the "christianization" of the Roman Empire, the Armenian king Tiridates converted to Christianity (302 AD). He destroyed pagan temples and built churches; "it is noteworthy that Armenia, while wedged between 2 larger pagan empires, became the first Christian nation an a time when the notion of a Christian nation would have been inconceivable (p. 151)!
• Mount Ararat is actually in Armenia, not in Turkey like I thought.
• With Greek-speaking Roman Empire on the west, Syriac-speaking Persian Empire on the east, Greek was the liturgical language in Armenia until the 5th century. Armenian was spoken by the people but it did not have a written language—which meant that the majority of clergy were foreigners. Sensing the need for indigenous Armenian leadership and a written alphabet, the Armenian scholar Mesrop Mashtots created an Armenian alphabet and provided the first translation of the Bible in Armenian. He started with Proverbs, and the first words of Scripture written in Armenian were: "To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive words of understanding." Proverbs 1:2 (pp. 152-154)
• The Georgian king also declared his nation a Christian country in the early 4th century, and like its neighbor, Armenia, had an alphabet developed for the purpose of translating the Bible and composing original theological literature (pp. 157, 159).

Talk about a rich, beautiful history of the church in the Middle East! Were any of these facts new to you? How does this impact your view of the fullness of the Church and Christian history? I'd love to hear from you below!

Historic Peace Treaty between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain

 Did you hear the news?!

On September 11, 2020, the Kingdom of Bahrain agreed to normalize relations with Israel, joining the United Arab Emirates with their own historic peace deal. THIS IS SO BIG! As the Times of Israel pointed out: "For Israel, after 2 peace treaties in 72 years, there have now been 2 in a month."

That's not all!

• Eastern European country Kosovo, a Muslim majority country, announced a normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel, and will establish an embassy in Jerusalem. Its neighbor, Serbia, is also moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
• Malawi will become the first African nation to place its embassy to Jerusalem.
• Israel is in talks with Central Africa country Chad about possibly opening an embassy in Jerusalem.

WOW! Even though I knew the Bahrain deal was coming, I still am so amazed! What an historic time to be living in! 

What do you think about these latest events in the Middle East? Please let me know in a comment below!

A Multitude of All Peoples: the early church in Africa (Part 2)

Last week we started talking about the history of the church in Africa, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. 

I decided to end the post earlier than planned, because the final quote I shared was so powerful I wanted to leave it on that thought.

But now, I want to continue with the list I started, of sharing things I learned about the Church's rich history in Africa:

• The Ethiopian Church, which became strong and flourishing in the 4th century, were committed to the teachings of Scripture and willfully rejected traditional African religion. This is significant giving the commonly held assumption that Christianity's beginnings in Africa were by force and that all Africans who rejected their traditional religion did so by compulsion" (p. 106). This was still true as late as 1468 AD.
• Tertullian, of North Africa, was the first major figure to develop Christian theology in Latin (p.110).
• Perpetua, a noble woman from Carthage at the end of the 3rd century, wrote The Passion of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their companions, a story depicting the persecution and martyrdom of several North African Christians—including herself and her pregnant slave, Felicitas. "That Perpetua's husband is not directly mentioned, that she refuses the pleas of her father to apostatize, and that the central figures of this early Christian text are female challenged the male-dominant culture of early Christianity. Indeed, if the common proposition of Perpetua's authorship is correct, the Passion is the earliest Christian text written by a woman" (p.111).
• "However, Christianity in North Africa was in large part centered on the wealthy, educated, Latin-speaking, urban population.... Muslim sources in Arabic indicate continuing Christian presence in North Africa for centuries after the conquest... Interestingly, one of the most common terms for Christians in Africa in Arabic was afariqa—indicating a significant degree to which 'Christian' and 'Africa' were synonymous concepts" (p. 117-118).

Wow- these are all really interesting to me. Were any of these facts new information for you? I'm so thankful for the work Bantu did putting this history together! Please let me know below what stood out to you.

Next week, we'll explore the early Middle Eastern church!

A Multitude of Peoples: The early church in Africa (Part 1)

After discussing Antipas L. Harris' Is Christianity The White Man's Religion?, I knew immediately the next book I wanted to explore on the topic of reading the Bible in color: A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu.

Quite simply, this book took my breath away.

Bantu takes the reader through a thorough description of the history of the Church, starting with the issue of why Christianity is so often associated with the Western world, even "though the majority of Christians now live in the Global South" (page 1). But what I want to focus on are the next few chapters, because the wealth in them is incredible. 

Even just focusing this post on Africa is too much to really fit into one post, so I'm going to write in bullet points below. While I have known that truth behind the premise of this book (that Christianity is a global religion and the non-Western world had a big impact and presence on it throughout the last 2 millennia), I learned a lot. Here are just a few things I learned specifically about the early church in Africa:

• Alexandria and Egypt represent the gateway for Christianity in Africa, which attributes the spread of the Gospel to the Apostle Mark. "Alexandria was one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity—a meeting point of Hellenistic, Jewish, native Egyptian, and other influences. (pp. 72-73, 74)
• Among the Biblical fragments from 2nd-century Egypt is a fragment of the Gospel of John, which is the earliest material evidence of a canonical New Testament text (p. 73).
• Theologians Clement (Egypt), Origen (Egypt), Irenaeus (Libya), Tertullian (Libya), Augustine (Algeria), and so many more were from Africa.
• The painting of the nativity in the monastery at the capital of Dongola from the late 10th century "represents early evangelization efforts from the Nile Valley Christians of Nubia to cultures further south and west in the African continent. The Gospel had already been spreading along the Nile river from Egypt to Nubia and then Ethiopia. This painting represents the continued spread of the gospel from Africans to neighboring Africans. If the Western church had not condemned, oppressed, and isolated the early African church, leaving it open to Islamic domination, the Gospel may have continued to spread to the extremities of the African continent at an early period. Yet this painting raising the intriguing potential of Western and Central African Christians before the advent of Western colonialism" (page 95).

I'm going to stop here and continue this topic next week, because that's exactly what the above quote did to me when I read it: it stopped me in my tracks. It reminded me of Marvel's Black Panther*, and how it is a powerful, undeniable visual of how Africa's story was violently disrupted by Western colonialism in the worst way. This also includes the history of the African church, which is rich beyond what any of us can fully imagine.

What about you? Were any of the above points new information for you? Does it impact or change your understanding of the early church and the history of Christianity at all? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments below!

*I wrote this post on Thursday, Aug 27, 2020, and in the writing of it, experienced a renewed desire to re-watch Black Panther. The next night, while staying with a friend, we made plans to watch it on Saturday. After that conversation, I opened my phone and read the shocking news that Chadwick Boseman, the actor playing BP’s main character, King T’Challa had passed away after a 4-year silent war with cancer. Since then, I’ve re-watched the movie 2x, and am still amazed at the incredible- and important- world of Wakanda.

Historic Peace Treaty between Israel and the UAE

Back in June, I talked about how Israel was supposed to annex Gaza and the West Bank on July 1. As time passed, I wondered what happened; why I wasn't reading stories saying "it happened". Then, last week, this incredible news was announced:

WOW!

The United Arab Emirates has become the 3rd Arab nation to strike a peace deal with Israel, the first being Egypt in 1967 and Jordan in 1994.

According to Amir Tsarfati of Behold Israel, "Israel and the UAE have been working together in developing new methods to more efficiently combat COVID-19. As part of this new partnership, the two countries will share in trade, travel, tourism, and even technology." Behold Israel notes that while Palestine, Iran, and Turkey are against this peace deal, other Arab states support it (and might even follow with their own). In fact, one report I heard said that OMan will sign one in the next 2 weeks and Bahrain will follow (Bahrain has already picked out a building for an Israeli embassy!), Morocco, and then maybe even Saudi Arabia. Already Saudi Arabia is allowing Israeli flights to cross their airspace to get to the UAE. 

For more of the implications of this peace deal, you can watch Amir Tsarfati's update here:

What do you think of this historic event?

Important Pupdate!

We interrupt your normally scheduled post for this BIG (teeny) announcement: 

My family got a puppy! I'm so excited! We were so heartbroken over losing our precious Mitsi in June, and then God led my parents and I to this little red girl from Talladega, Alabama. 

Introducing Annie Reba Fancypants! She’ll go by Annie and her initials spell “ARF”. She is 9 weeks old, as sweet as a dewdrop on a peach tree, and has already stolen our hearts with her bright eyes, puppy prance, and southern accent. 🐩💖💃🏽 👢

Needless to say, the past few days (and the next few weeks) are going to be very full of puppydom. It's already been an adventure re-entering this world. Annie is so precious and as sweet as can be! We've only had her 36 hours and she already knows where her bowls are and is pottying outside like a pro. Now to just get her to used to the crate at night. Prayers appreciated! 

We know nothing can replace Mitsi, and we aren't trying to. But it's so wonderful to have a buddy again! You can see more pictures and videos of her at Instagram: annie.reba.fancypants and FB: annierebafancypants.

Acts of Faith Series

Continuing with the theme of the Early Church, I want to share about this really cool series I read a few years ago. The Acts of Faith series is fiction, set in the time of the crucifixion and right after. It follows characters like a Roman-centurion-turned-Christian, the disciples, Stephen and so many more.

Essentially, it's a fictional retelling of the beginning of the book of Acts.

What I love about this series is how the authors brought that world to life. Suddenly, the reader is immersed in the culture and issues of the day. What does it mean for the Roman centurion who now is a follower of the Way? What is it like to be a Jew and suddenly also be a Christian—in a very Jewish culture? How does it feel to be "figuring Christianity out" in this world?

The scene that hit me the most in this series is with Ananias and Sapphira. The reader is right there, seeing Ananias bring his offering, lie, and drop dead, and then the same happening with Sapphira. To us, it's a retelling of a story we know—no big deal. But to the early church... wow. Can you imagine being there that day and seeing what happened? Or hearing about it after? What would your first thought have been after? Would you have been afraid? 

Obviously, the seriousness of what it meant to become a follower of Christ isn't lost on them, as so many were witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. But, the "stakes" don't stop there, as now they are trying to figure out what it means to be the Church... and it's not in a bubble, but right in the heart of the Roman Empire, where followers of Jesus are actively being persecuted and killed. 

Unfortunately, this series ends WAY too soon. I was SO EXCITED to get to Paul's story and his journeys, but it stops abruptly. It's still a wonderful read; I just hope that one day I can read the re-telling of the rest of the Acts story through this series!

Daughter of Rome by Tessa Afshar

I am so excited by this blog post, because I read the most amazing book this week that gave me so much to think about: Daughter of Rome by Tessa Afshar. This is the 3rd book of hers I've reviewed on this blog, and it won't be the last. In fact, so far, this one is my favorite.

Daughter of Rome is Biblical fiction, featuring the stories of Priscilla and Aquila of the New Testament. Since not much is known about this couple apart from Paul's mentions of them in Acts 18: 1-28, 1 Cor. 16:19, Romans 16:3-5, and 2 Timothy 4:19, it's obvious Afshar put a lot of research into this story. In addition, Afshar herself has valuable insight that I wouldn't have. Born and raised in Iran until age 14, she understands the Middle Eastern world in a way that I'm sure has greatly impacted her novels. And as I talked about last week, it's so important to have the perspectives of the whole Body of Christ as we study the Bible and as we live and engage in the world. 

So, on to the book- what struck me immediately was something that should have been obvious (except that as a Western reader in the 21st century, I didn't catch this!): Priscilla and Aquila were an interracial couple in the Early Church. Priscilla was Roman and Aquila (which, since I don't speak Hebrew, I didn't catch this was a Hebrew name) was a Jew. In "A Note from the Author" on pages 381-384, Afshar describes what she found in her research to reach this conclusion, and it is fascinating. But when I realized this a few chapters into the story, I almost sat straight up at the implications (I was reading laying down on the couch, weighted down by my poodle). WOW! The implications of this, considering how strict Judaism is about intermarrying with Gentiles, is incredible!

With a lack of a documented backstory, Afshar was able to creatively explore how they came to be married and part of the early church. That was fun to see. But for me, the story really picked up when they moved to Corinth and met Paul. There were also other well-known Biblical characters in this story, like Rufus, believed to be the son of Simon of Cyrene (modern day Libya), who carried the cross for Jesus when He couldn't anymore. Again, this really hit home the perspective of this being a multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-racial world—not only in real life, but in the Early Church as well!

I am so thankful to Tessa Afshar for writing this book, because what I knew of this couple really was just that they were dear friends of Paul, part of the Early Church, and that it was important that they served together (that it wasn't just that Aquila was serving and Priscilla was just there. She had an important role!). Afshar points out in her author's note, though, that there are many mentions of Priscilla's name before Aquila's, which suggests "that, indeed, on certain occasions, she might have been considered the more knowledgeable teacher and a respected leader in her own right". And while this book is definitely fiction and should not be taken as Scripture, just the fact of what Afshar shows can be proven—that this is an interracial couple, a Gentile and a Jew, in the Early Church—is pretty much blowing my mind.

You can find this book here on Amazon—I highly recommend it!