City of God

I just finished reading a trilogy by Randall Ingermanson called the City of God Series. The names of the books are Transgression, Premonition, and Retribution. These books have pretty much everything I look for in novels. They’re about Biblical characters. Well, sort of. Biblical times, at least. The characters are true to their times. And the author presents multifaceted, character driven reading. That is to say, each short section is told from the viewpoint of a particular character, so in time we get full development of each character. Not like so many novels, where all the characters think alike.

The books are about modern people who go back in time through a wormhole, which later closes, trapping them in the 1st century. Ari and Rivka Kazan are their names. The people in the first century call them Ari the Kazan, and Rivka the Kazan. Rivka is an archeologist who is also well versed in the works of Josephus, and thus knows a lot about what is going to happen in the next few years, including the Jewish rebellion against Rome and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. As she and Ari try to fit into the culture, she says some things which come to pass, albeit imperfectly. So some of the people think she is a seer woman and others think she’s a false prophet.

The first book is primarily about the whole experiment gone awry, their assimilation into the culture, and oh yes, Rivka saves the apostle Paul from being killed by a man who went through the wormhole with them for that purpose.

One of the things I especially liked was the argument about whether or not history could be changed. One of them thinks it can, but would have devastating consequences, while the other thinks it cannot be done. The conclusion seems to be that it cannot be changed, and that, in fact, both of them do things which actually cause the historical things to happen, thus showing that although they do indeed meddle, they only succeed in changing what would have been had they not been there to what actually was. In one example, Paul stands before the people on the Temple steps giving a defense of his ministry after the Roman commander pulls him away from the mob. It is at this moment that Paul’s would-be killer is pointing a gun at him from the crowd, having calculated that this was his best chance. Rivka realizes it, but since she’s a little too far away and the crowd is too thick, she desperately yells out, “Stone him. Away with such a man.” This gets the crowd into a frenzy, they swarm after Paul, and the assassin is swallowed up in the mass. Plot foiled.

This inability to change history comes up again in the second book in which Rivka wants to save Jesus’ brother James from being martyred, but is unable to. The last book is the most gripping of the three, I think. Which is unusual, because usually in a series like this, by the time the third book rolls around, the author runs out of ideas. But in this one, Rivka knows that the Jewish revolt is near and that, according to history, a prophet warns the Christian community about it so they can leave the city beforehand. Rivka figures it might as well be her.

History says that when the Jews revolted against Rome, they were able to inflict a good deal of damage before finally being overcome. Apparently, this baffles historians. Ingermanson deals with it by having Ari, a brilliant physicist, help them to develop a fine tempered steel, which they use to make knives to fight with.

There is a very touching scene near the end of the third book on a day when the Roman governor crucifies hundreds of Jews right in the city. Ari, who is a non-believer and believes that all Jewish persecution can be traced back to the Christian world, is slated to be one of those crucified, when his friend Baruch offers to take his place. Through this, he begins to see what Christ’s sacrifice really meant.