Skip to main content

story identification - SciFi / fantasy book from 80s about Jesus, present-day New York, time travel and the Dead Sea scrolls


I read this book back in the late 80s/ early 90s. I remember the title of the book as Mission.


It started with a man being admitted to a hospital in present-day NY at Easter, with all of the wounds that Jesus suffered. He is brought back from death and ultimately recruits a sceptic who is persuaded to board an El Al flight to Israel. A terrorist blows up the plane, but Jesus and this guy are transported back to Biblical times. This goes to explain Jesus's disappearance from his grave over the Easter weekend.


Basically, this sceptic winds up writing the Dead Sea scrolls, but with the knowledge from his original time. Another thread of the story has academics in the 50s (or so) going through the scrolls with mounting disbelief at the kind of stuff this guy is writing (particularly about sex/violence/regular life in NY in the 80s/90s). They decide that it's too controversial and end up keeping the scrolls under wraps and this ends up being the reason that the scrolls have still not been released to the public at large.



Can anyone come up with the author / ISBN? The trouble is that with vague terms like Mission, stigmata and Easter you wind up with thousands of results :)



Answer



I think you're referring to Patrick Tilley's Mission


I've never read it, but I do remember reading the blurb on the back a loooooooong time ago; it starts out with a man bearing the same wounds as Jesus appearing in modern-day (well, 1980s) Manhattan.


I can't find a description of much of the plot, other than what's given on Patrick Tilley's web page for the novel:



What would you do if, through an unexpected twist of fate and time, you came face to face with Jesus of Nazareth? In the flesh. A living, breathing, three-dimensional figure with a disconcertingly casual manner. When you had pinched yourself to make sure that you weren't dreaming and found that he was still there, would you turn your back and walk away - or would you try to find out what he was doing so far from home?


That was the decision facing Leo Resnick, a smart young Manhattan lawyer, and his girl-friend, Dr Miriam Maxwell. Mission is Leo's record of his encounter with The Man. If you've ever looked up at the stars and wondered what it all means, this is the book you've been waiting for. Mission is the nearest you'll get to the Secret of the Universe this side of the Apocalypse.


The trip starts on Page One. Climb aboard.




Here's an excerpt from chapter 1:



    I took a deep breath and looked at the body. Like Miriam had said, he hadn’t been blown away but he was still a mess. The man was about thirty to thirty-five years old, medium build, lean hard body. In general, his features were of the type the police label Hispanic. He had a swarthy complexion and his skin was deeply tanned. He had a beard and straggly, shoulder-length hair. Like a hippie who’d done time on a kibbutz. There was a gaping, two-inch wide stab-wound in his left side just under his rib cage but the most unsettling thing was the bruises and lacerations. The guy had had the shit beaten out of him, then taken one hell of a whipping. The skin on his back had been cut through to the bone and there were deep raw stripes on the backs of his thighs as well. It also looked as if his attackers had beaten him over the head with a nailed piece of wood. Miriam pointed to his feet. ‘See that?’
    I nodded. ‘Yeah, what are they - bullet wounds?’
    ‘No,’ replied Wallis. ‘Somebody drove a metal spike through them. Through his wrists too.’ He picked up an arm and showed me.
    I swallowed hard. ‘Jeezuss! What kind of people would do something like this?’



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Tolkien trying to say in this letter?

In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Was Galadriel's temptation of Boromir instrumental to his fall?

We know Galadriel tempted the members of the Fellowship, did she tempt Boromir with visions of taking the Ring and saving Gondor? In the books, Boromir willingly accepts the judgement of the council that the Ring should be destroyed, but after the meeting with Celeborn and Galadriel his personality seems to change. Was the temptation offered by Galadriel in some way responsible for Boromir's fall? Answer It's likely, but not certain I believe it is likely Galadriel tempted him with the ring, and in doing so re-ignited a pre-existing idea to take the ring, but to be clear lets break this down into three parts. Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir after setting off Boromir after being tempted Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir pleas for the ring to go to Minas Tirith, to help Gondor in its defense against Mordor. “ Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more