Despite the latest means of police technology, computers, forensics, his
search for the body is not successful. The followers of Jesus claim that
Jesus is alive, but how could he be? There were some irregularities in the
execution, but he could not have survived it. Or was somebody else killed
instead – all these Jews are alike with their beards and wild looks. Gallio
fails to interview witnesses, Simon of Cyrene, Joseph of Aremathea,
Veronica of the ‘Cloth’, and finally his chief witness, Judas, is found hanging
– an assassination made look like suicide -. Gallio is punished for his failure
and sent to the legions.
Years later, the file is re-opened and Gallio recalled and ordered to track
down everyone involved the first time round. The problem is, the apostles
have gone out into ‘all the (known) world’ that is Europe and the Middle East,
and have carried their message of Christ alive with them. They have been
established in an ever growing Church, been made bishops and other
Church leaders. Gallio’s place of action therefore has become very large, he
travels by air to reach the apostles in far away places, The only problem is
they keep dying, in ever more grotesque and violent ways, they seem to
welcome their death, their martyrdom, while those killing them remain
obscure assassins. But how can Gallio stay ahead of the game when the
game keeps changing? His task now is not to find the dead Jesus, but Jesus
alive. He has been seen by too many people who bear witness to him being
alive. The last one who claims to have seen him is Paul. He is not confined
to a specific place but jetting about and living it up in posh hotels. Gallio is
certain that Paul is a double agent, working for Rome and for the Christians
alike. When Gallio finally tracks him down for interview, Paul is assassinated
before his very eyes by his bodyguard, who claims to work for the imperial
authorities.
By then Gallio believes the story, that Jesus will come back before the
disciple whom Jesus loved would die. Including Paul and Judas, 12 apostles
are dead, the only one alive is John, who must be the beloved disciple. .
Now Gallio befriends John, becomes his bodyguard (to make sure he is not
killed before Jesus comes), is his secretary and companion on the Island of
Patmos. Gallio now is free-lance, a man with a mission to meet Jesus.
Indeed, he is told that Jesus has a special task for him, it must be that of
serving John. In that latter part of the book, Gallio is waiting for the coming of
Jesus. He is survived by John, dying holding on to ‘the hand that Jesus had
touched’.
Beard says that his book is ‘about a man’s struggle to confront forces and
events beyond his understanding, no matter when they may have
happened’. Asked, if Churches condemned that he wrote a thriller about the
things which Christians consider as holy, Beard said that nobody had called
for jihad nor for his assassination, but that he had been invited to read from
his books , including the one on Lazarus, at church- lead festivals.
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