Leonard Wibberley (1915–1983)

This is effectively a sequel to the author's The Centurion: A Roman Soldier's Testament of the Passion of Christ. In the New Testament, Theophilus was the dedicatee of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but his real identity is contested. Here he is a grain merchant who witnesses Jesus Christ's confrontation with Pontius Pilate and, moved to pity, offers him a cup of wine. After the crucifixion, Pilate commissions him to investigate rumours of Christ's resurrection, talking to a wide variety of different people. What this novel puts across well is how contemporaries, Jewish, Roman, Greek, or whatever, would have viewed the existence and teaching of a man who initially seemed to be just another of the many Jewish messiahs who had emerged from time to time. Over time Theophilus's bafflement and hostility to the Christian doctrines is worn down, but this is not a smooth process and the story is not at all "preachy". I enjoyed this, though I thought there were too many digressions into the general history of the Roman Empire of this time, unconnected to the subject of the book's subtitle, sometimes seemingly just to give the story a salacious feel by the inclusion of incidents lifted from Suetonius's Twelve Caesars.… (mer)

This is a novel told largely from the point of view of Longinus, the centurion who is ordered to administer the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. This is a tough assignment for him as he has developed some sympathy for Christ, who had saved his Celtic servant Ruafocus from a fatal disease. The story is told in quite a straightforward but quite gripping way, from the first rumours of Jesus preaching, at which time he is just one among many Jewish preachers, to his becoming more and more popular, as stories of his miracles attract more and more witnesses, who cannot all just be dismissed as credulous. It is easy to see how Jesus was increasingly perceived as a threat to the Roman authorities, preaching what sounded like sedition but in a completely non-violent way, and to the local Jewish leadership, especially the Pharisees, performing miracles but acting unofficially outside the limits of Jewish authority. As the author says: "First, he did not preach only in the Temple but more often in the open whenever a crowd had gathered around him. Second, he never dealt with the Law, but talked about their daily lives and their Father in Heaven who looked after them so that they could feel his presence in the mountains and fields and valleys. Again he used no subtleties, but spoke directly so that there was no hidden meaning in his words. And finally he made up little stories, about planting seeds or harvesting grain or going on a journey, or losing a coin, or lighting a lamp, or building a house, all of which applied directly to their own lives." Yet, strangely, after he is condemned to crucifixion, the crowds overwhelmingly mock and deride him. A moving novel, whatever one's religious views - not for no reason has the story of Jesus been called the greatest story ever told.… (mer)

Patrick O'Connor is a pseudonym for Leonard Wibberley, a popular author of adult and children's books in the 1950s. His work is hard to find nowadays; too bad, because I remember enjoying many of his stories.
I remember liking this book so much that when my high school English teacher required that we compare our favorite book to the one we had to write a book report for, I compared The Last Temptation of Christ to this book: it's more exciting, although Kazantzakis' book is more complex.… (mer)