In the last hours of the Civil War, in a desolate, muddy cornfield . . .
Jeremiah Tate, a battle-hardened Union officer who has long since forgotten God, shoots and severely wounds a young Confederate named Elijah Bell. With the words “Be God’s messenger as I have been,” the dying Bell hands Tate a worn Bible.
And so begins that Bible’s moving and mysterious journey through history—told in parallel story lines—beginning with Tate and leading to Gary Brandon. Gary receives the ancient Bible as a college graduation gift in 1980 from his alcoholic uncle Daniel, who claims to have dug up the Bible in a Saudi Arabian cave along with some valuable artifacts—a story Gary views with skepticism. But it is Gary’s search that finally reveals the Bible’s potent history and the names and stories of the people whose lives it has touched.Read More...
