God and Kings, 1st in this series
This is about Hezekiah as a 5-year-old (or thereabouts) nearly being thrown into fire as the Israelites worshiped their god Molech. This book is about how that traumatizing experience influenced his growing up years until he became an adult and then a king himself.
Song of Redemption, 2nd in this series
This is about Jerusha, a young Jewish woman who is captured by the Assyrians from Northern Israel and experiences their abuse and oppression firsthand. Almost miraculously she escapes and becomes instrumental in Hezekiah’s strategy preparing to face the Assyrians in war.
The Strength of His Hand, 3rd in this series
This is about Hezekiah’s wife Hephzibah’s secret worship of the fertility goddess Asherah, since she was barren. When Hezekiah found out, his rage caused the accident and his critical injury that nearly cost his life. How God used all this in their lives is so touching.
Faith of My Fathers, 4th in this series
This is about King Manasseh and his friend from childhood, Joshua, as they grow apart due to Manasseh’s bitterness over his father’s death. As Manasseh turned to other gods, Joshua ended up fleeing for his life and allowing bitterness to control him.
Among the Gods, 5th in this series
This is about Joshua leading the faithful remnant to a new home in Egypt. His desire for vengeance against his childhood friend consumes him, and how Joshua gets relief from this is absolutely riveting.
About Francine Rivers’ books:
I read her works a long time ago, and from what I remember, her works seemed accurate, as far as I knew. Her series “The Mark of the Lion” is more historical than biblical fiction because the Bible characters (Peter and John) are old and not in the story much. But this series impressed me the most for its entertaining qualities. I would rate most of this series with the same entertaining quality as Austin’s. Some of her other biblical fiction books aren’t too bad for entertaining potential, as well (see more following).
A Voice in the Wind (Mark of the Lion, 1st in the series)
After the first few pages just the first chapter drags a little. The rest of the book is as good as Austin’s. It’s about a young Jewish lady taken captive by Rome when Jerusalem was sacked in 70 AD, and also about a gladiator taken captive in Germania.
An Echo in the Darkness (Mark of the Lion, 2nd in the series)
This whole book is equal to Austin’s entertaining quality. It’s the continued stories of the captive young Jewish lady and the gladiator in Rome, and how God worked in their lives, the lady being a Christian and the gladiator dealing with hatred, being without the Lord in his life.
As Sure as the Dawn (Mark of the Lion, 3rd in the series)
If this book loses just a bit of Rivers’ entertaining momentum in this series, it doesn’t lose much! It follows the gladiator as he’s freed by Rome, finds his child with a widowed Christian woman, and struggles with his rage at Rome when repeatedly confronted by Christianity.
Another Biblical Fiction author, Angela Elwell Hunt:
I read this work ages ago and remember being quite impressed by how entertaining it was.
First Light, by Bodie and Brock Thoene
I was impressed with the entertaining quality of this book. It sounds better researched than the other biblical fiction of the same era that I could recommend, but it covers an era of time when there is so much available to know. So I would be quite disappointed if it wasn’t this well researched, and found the research to be OK, but not great.
Other Biblical Fiction by Francine Rivers:
Rivers is quite a prolific biblical fiction writer and I respect her for that, but due to time constraints, I just can’t fit in reading all her works.
A Lineage of Grace, 5 short stories of different women in the Bible
I usually prefer longer stories but for short stories I vaguely remember these were pretty good.
Movies
I would’ve found Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” to be too violent for my preferences, although I suspect this aspect of the story was rather accurate. But there were 13 recommendations Dr James Fleming and others made to the writers of that movie that were rejected. Listen to more of what Dr James Fleming said about the movie.
In my opinion, “The Chosen” is one of the best biblical fiction movies to date in terms of accuracy, but there are still, as far as I’m concerned, two glaring flaws in its inaccuracy. One is that Jesus wasn’t exercising Levitical cleanliness in this series, and the other is the westernizing/modernizing of different cultural aspects with regard to women. Perhaps this is what people in the west generally want to watch. But Jesus fulfilled all righteousness including the Levitical laws, and women were treated much more like Muslims treat their women today.
20
envisionbibleworld.com
Tour Israel by remote through my website with a Christian archaeologist. Find pictures, video clips and information to envision the Bible world better.
This stuff is great! Check it out, about half an hour but real interesting
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted. I read this book recently & enjoyed it as much as Joachim Jeremias, which says a lot :)
www.biblicalarchaeology.org/reviews/jesus-last-night-with-his-disciples/
www.biblicalarchaeology.org/reviews/jesus-last-night-with-his-disciples/
I like AI (Artificial Intelligence) improving my pictures in my blogs, although I hope in the future it can improve them more. AI is recent technology & usually the 1st versions of anything improves with time. I never liked pictures of Jesus for a few reasons (i.e. accuracy is only 1 reason), but would like them better if his face was mostly hidden by the angle &/or his clothing. Yet I felt I needed pictures to display what my blogs were about. So I look forward to improving this in time.
So it turned out to be too much this year for my student to get my recent research database available online, we went back to the demo from up-to 2016 research again. Perhaps if I get 1-2 real good student next year it may be within reach now, but I'm content with researching off-line & with hopes my programmer/friend will find time to do it eventually.
Check out my YouTube Account (www.youtube.com/@tourisrael). Just keep in mind the YouTube Account play lists are still under construction as of July 6, 2024, which will soon show all my documentary links. You may want to check out my trailer for the documentary, too:
Did you read your Bible lately?
Heather, May 2023
