The Thirteenth Apostle

The Thirteenth Apostle

by Michel Benoit (Author)

Synopsis

When his friend, Father Andrei, is mysteriously killed on a train on his way back from Rome, Father Nil, a Benedictine who teaches the Gospel of St. John to novices, decides to conduct his own investigation. The dead priest possessed proof of the existence of a thirteenth apostle and an epistle stating that Jesus was nothing more than an inspired prophet, not the Son of God - two things that would spell great danger for the Church. Father Nil then discovers a previously unpublished account of the origins of Christianity. It tells of the Nazarenes, a community excluded from the official Church by Peter and Paul, who appear to have thrived until the 7th century, playing an important rule in the birth of Islam. While he pushes ahead with his investigation, the Pope's advisors, rival factions and secret societies are trying, by any means, to lay their hands on the priest's findings. From the Mossad to Fatah, everyone seems to have a very good reason to keep the thirteenth apostle a secret...The story of an ancient sect detailed within papyrus sheaves hidden in the caves at Qumran forms the basis of this exhaustively researched novel. The Thirteenth Apostle contains lore perhaps more familiar to fans of the Knights Templar than to readers of Dan Brown, but will excite similar passions.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Alma Books Ltd
Published: 04 Jul 2011

ISBN 10: 1846881536
ISBN 13: 9781846881534

Media Reviews
He presents a picture of endemic corruption within institutional Catholicism that stretches from a murderous Saint Peter at the very start of its history down to a villainous Cardinal Catzinger in the 21st century. - The Independent
Author Bio
Religious scholar and novelist Michel Benoit was born in Madagascar in 1940 (then a French colony). In 1962, having studied Biochemistry under Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod and obtained a PhD in Pharmacology, he entered the Benedectine order as an unordained monk, remaining there for twenty-two years. Because of his ideological nonconformity, he eventually quit the Catholic Church and decided to devote himself to research and writing. His first book, Prisoner of God, an account of his life in the monastery, became an instant worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1992. This was followed by two religious essays, a travel book based on a trip to India and, in 2006, the thriller The Thirteenth Apostle, which transposes into fictional form his lifetime's research on the life of Jesus.