Silva, unusual for him, does include one charming mystical touch. Gabriel gets the first page of the “Gospel of Pilate” from a sandal-wearing Father Joshua, and later encounters him during a Venice flood: “The priest seemed to move across the floodwaters without disturbing the surface.” Gabriel, wondering how Father Joshua made it into the Vatican’s “Secret Archives,” says, “Your name doesn’t appear on the staff directory. … You weren’t wearing any identification that day.” Joshua responds, “Why would someone like me require identification?” Gabriel: “Who are you?” Joshua responds, “Who do you say I am?” Hmm. Joshua says, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” and raises a bandaged hand. Then he disappears.
Silva grew up in a Catholic home, married a Jewish CNN correspondent, and converted to Judaism. One of his characters says, “I decided I could be both a Christian and a Jew. After all, Jesus was a Jew.” As a convert myself I understand different tugs, and enjoy spy novels from a variety of perspectives—but a writer should do his homework. The better response to anti-Semitism is: add, don’t subtract. Instead of trying to eliminate a verse, read it in the context of other verses, such as John 4:22’s “salvation is from the Jews.” Yes, remember that Jesus and all His Apostles were Jews. Remember not to eliminate Matthew 19:19 and 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Comments
RC
Posted: Mon, 07/20/2020 11:18 pmThanks for the review. I will be sure to skip Silvia's latest outing of the written word. Good old Bart Error-man. What insanity causes a university to put Athiest, like Bart, incharge of religious studies? Sort of like putting a wolf in charge of a hen house. I guess he brings attention to the school he represnts.
CS
Posted: Tue, 07/21/2020 09:51 pmThank you for the head's up! I usually devour these novels. Disappointing.
DD
Posted: Wed, 07/22/2020 11:04 amThank you for "taking one for the team." I was just about to check out a copy from our local library. Now I can spend my time on more worthy reads. So sad that this series may be dropping off my TBR list. Hoping that next year will be a better one and back to the quality of previous works.
AS
Posted: Tue, 08/25/2020 09:52 amThank you for your review. I read the book before I saw your review. It's good to know that I am not standing in left field by myelf. I thought the same things that you have written. The book was very disappointing. Silva did seem to go out of his way to try to diprove anything regarding the gospel accounts.