THE GOSPEL: The Good News According to Josephus / by FOI member C. G. Weiss, c2010.
New book presents legend and history simultaneously in an intriguing retelling.
In ancient times a “gospel” was part allegory, part aretology – a song of praise, usually to an emperor, after a military victory. Author C.G. Weiss melds together both legend and history in rendering the fascinating story of THE GOSPEL: The Good News According to Josephus.
It takes place in the year 95 C.E. (A.D.). Flavia Sabena -- a cousin to Emperor Domitian – holds a dinner party at her home on the last night of the Festival of Saturnalia. The hostess has invited eminent Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, as guest of honor, to give readings from his works while they wait up all night in their annual solar vigil celebrating the mid-Winter Solstice.
The GOSPEL narrative consists chiefly of Josephus’ monologue as speaker – shared with the younger Josephus in flashback, and interrupted at points by his fellow guests. Josephus’ account of his exploits in the Jewish War with Rome (66-70 C.E.) presents a re-telling from classical histories, -- primarily writings of Flavius Josephus: Antiquities, Wars and Life.
In the story being recounted, the “Good News” heralded Vespasian, the Roman emperor whose forces defeated the religious fanatics who led -- or forced -- the Jews to revolt against Rome. But resonating through the story is a silent theme of a New World coming – one that will be rather more than less Jewish as Romans begin to adopt the “manners” of the Jews. It is one that would replace the Roman pagan world. In the setting of the story, the building blocks of the coming culture lay scattered about, but with different significance attached.
Josephus’ Life and Wars, the official account of the Jewish War, together complete a puzzle that shimmers through the outline of The GOSPEL, which the reader is allowed to interpret. Inserts into Josephus’ narrative from other, mostly classical, sources provide a fuller depiction of the times. And Tacitus and Suetonius are guests at Flavia Sabena’s party and speak for themselves.
For more information and a compelling read, log onto Xlibris.com, for The GOSPEL.
C.G. Weiss
THE GOSPEL * by C.G. Weiss
The Good News According To Josephus
Publication Date: June 10, 2010
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 275 pages; 978-1-4500-2785-4
Trade Hardback; $29.99; 275 pages; 978-1-4500-2786-1
eBook; $9.99; 978-1-4500-2787-8
1 comment:
You must be wondering what in the world my book, The Gospel, is doing on the Fellowship of Isis blog. The reason is that one of the characters is based in part on Lady Olivia Robertson. At p. 20, the dour but noble Roman lady, Pomponia Graecina , is transformed into the joyful Lady Olivia as she was seen dancing at the Irish-American Fellowship Hall in Chicago, September, 1998. Tacitus wrote in his Annals for the 40s C.E., that Lady Graecina, had been accused of some “foreign superstition”. Christians claim she was a Christian, but she could also have been a devotee of Isis. I chose the latter and gave Lady Olivia all the good lines about mythology. You can look up p. 20 on the Amazon website without buying the book. C.G. Weiss, Author
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