It was a calm, early summer noon in the southern mountains of Arabia. Sheltering the King's well-guarded domain, a mile above and a dozen miles east of the Dead Sea, motionless masses of neighbourly white clouds hung suspended from a remote blue ceiling.
There had been an unusually heavy snowfall in the winter, not only upon the King's land but throughout the country. It was going to be a prosperous season for everybody. Intertribal jangling and discontent would be reduced to a minimum.
MY THOUGHTS:
This was the bestselling fiction title of the year 1948. The eponymous character is, of course, the Apostle Peter, who booms off the page with huge stature and forceful personality. It tells the Gospel story with himself as the focal point, and I appreciate the inner grappling of Peter's mind every step along the way, from his first reluctant venture, as Simon the fisherman, to hear the noteworthy young Carpenter speak, to his passionate leading of the brand new faith movement. The bits concerning tussles with his own ego, in the face of Jesus' total indifference to social status or fame, are especially fun. Considering my current quest, (singling out the bestseller for each year throughout a century), I've got to grin.
Their first face to face encounter is among my favourite passages.
'By comparison with Simon's height and bulk, the Carpenter was of slight physique; but something about him, emanating from him, made him a commanding figure. Simon sensed it and felt inferior. In point of years, the man was his junior. Every other way considered, Simon felt himself a mere awkward, overgrown boy. He looked down into a pair of tranquil, steady, earnestly inquiring eyes. They held him fast; they brightened with a friendly smile, almost as if two long-time companions were meeting after a separation.'
But the big fisherman is not the only main character. It's also about the Arabian Princess Fara, the offspring of a marriage of convenience gone horribly haywire. Fara is a fictional character (I think!) but her parents' ill-fated union is recorded in history and woven into this storyline. As a young man, Herod Antipas marries Phasaelis, known as Arnon in this book, daughter of Aretas, King of the Arabs. It's a political alliance intended to strengthen the might of both countries. But when the threat from Rome turns out to be not as dire as first feared, Antipas divorces Arnon and sends her home, since she cramps his style. By our modern standards, the dude did far worse things than that down the track. (And hey, at least he didn't pull a Henry VIII move and execute her.) I almost feel he does her a favour, since she's miserable and homesick. But those ancient Arabians were a fierce, proud people who instantly put Antipas on their hit list for what they perceive as a national snub.
No-one is more bitter against Antipas than Fara, his attractive daughter who has never met him but blames him that she feels like an outcast. For some reason, she assumes assassinating her biological father will change all her hang-ups. As Fara heads to Israel intending to commit the gruesome deed, her destiny is tangled with Peter's, and she's drawn along with him to the compelling teaching of the charismatic Carpenter.
And in yet another thread, anxious Voldi, the handsome young hunk who's in love with Fara, is hot on her heels. Although he ticks all her boxes, she refuses to marry him, since she considers herself a liability to him. Voldi would do anything to change Fara's mind.
As you can imagine, this is the sort of epic you begin without knowing when you'll come out the other side. It feels drawn out toward the end, because the story extends far beyond Jesus' Crucifixion to some of the events in Acts, and hints that the end occurs shortly before Peter's own death.
Douglas often uses poetic license, which can be cool in story retellings. But I guess the main peril of reading fiction based strongly on biblical scripture, or any history at all, is that lines may be blurred. Joseph of Arimathea is cast in the role of the rich young ruler, which works in this story but most likely wasn't him at all. The healing miracles are great, but written in a way that suggests each one seriously saps Jesus' strength. Nothing in Scripture supports this. Sure, he sometimes got exhausted, but from hours of strenuous, non-stop work, rather than any individual acts. I do get Douglas' good intentions to show that every burden Jesus lifts from anyone is taken on himself, foreshadowing the tremendous gesture of the Crucifixion. Yet at the same time, promoting the idea that healing people completely drained him undermines Jesus' position of power and authority.
If we compare this epic against record, a few great Peter moments go begging. There is no Transfiguration incident in this book, and no mention of the crowing rooster during his big moment of shameful grief. Nor is there any scene with Peter rushing to the Tomb directly after hearing the women's report that it was empty.
As for Fara's thread, it sputters out all of three ways; regarding her father, Voldi and her future. I won't move into plot spoilers, but in both factual and fictional storylines, several dramatic incidents it seems logical to include were either glossed over or occurred offstage. After investing so much time into this massive book, that was disappointing. Some readers may feel that since this tome is well over 500 pages, Lloyd Douglas couldn't include everything. But I contest that some of the bits he did retain could've easily been sacrificed for the sake of the super-duper, mind-blowing bits he missed out.
Overall, there are many touching, convicting, breathtaking moments that make it well worth pushing through. I was pleased to see these words put into the mouth of Gamaliel, legal council to the lawgivers. 'Give these infatuated Galileans time. If their cause is unworthy of regard it will perish. If it is inspired of God, as they insist, you will not be able to thwart it even if you would.'
Ranking it is a challenge. The convicting, power moments definitely deserve five stars, yet the sketchy or missed parts undeniably cheat readers of the action we have every right to expect. And although I enjoyed the book, I was glad to turn the final page.
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