Title: Mary Magdalene
Author: Diana Wallis
Taylor
Year: 2012
Pages: 304
Publisher: Revell
Note: I received a
complimentary copy for an honest review.
Other reviews can be read on the blog located at http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/. You can
follow me on Twitter @lcjohnson1988.
Mary Magdalene is somewhat of an
enigma in the stories that are in New Testament. Sometimes when we use word stories we think
the people, places, and events are figments of the imagination. However, as far as the Bible is concerned,
these aren’t; they were real people living in real time through life here on
earth. Mary Magdalene lived during the
life of Christ and ministered to Him. He
delivered her from demons possessing her.
We know that she was the first to see that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead, mistaking Him for the gardener.
In this
work of fiction, Mary Magdalene is presented in a way that captures what life
might have been like for this woman.
Diana Wallis Taylor does a brilliant job of keeping Mary’s character in
the reality of the time when the real Mary lived. Diana weaves the customs of the times and the
Jewish observances into her characters and setting. There are also Jewish customs depicted during
that era, which include the teaching of the Torah, as well as pieces of the
life of Christ.
While
this is truly a work of fiction, it is easy for the reader to grasp the
imagination of the author as to what life was like in the Middle East. We are given a possible way that Mary meets
the Lord, what the disciples may have been like, and times the Word of God was
recited. Some of the other characters in
the story are real at one time, but how they may have interacted with others
and the Lord is the result of the imagination of the writer. It is a captivating story of love of parents,
children, husband, and the community. Nathan,
who is Mary’s husband in the story, is seeking an answer to help Mary as she is
persecuted by the nightmares of the past.
With each passing year, she gets worse until Nathan hears of a man from
Nazareth.
Once
you begin the story, you won’t be able to put the book down as the writer takes
the reader on an adventure into the past during the time of Christ. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is seen and how
she may have interacted with her other children, how they may have thought as
well as acted towards Jesus. I highly
recommend this book. I thoroughly
enjoyed this novel as the writer worked hard not to “Americanize” the time or
life of Christ or use our language today, but the language of Jews in that era.
My rating of this work is five stars.
