The Thirteenth Apostle - Softcover

Beno�t, Michel

3.35

966 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846881536 ISBN 13: 9781846881534

Publisher: Alma Books, 2011

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When his friend 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 Father Nil then discovers a previously unpublished account of the origins of Christianity.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 Nazoreans – a community excluded from the official Church by Peter and Paul – who appear to have thrived until the 7th century, playing an important role 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...

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About the Author:

Religious scholar and novelist Michel Beno�t 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 non-conformity, he eventually quit the Catholic Church and decided to devote himself to research and writing.

From Publishers Weekly:

Yet another discovery of a centuries-old secret that places� the very existence of the Catholic Church at stake propels Beno�t's formulaic religious thriller. Sinister Vatican officials, afraid that Father Andrei has stumbled on a truth that will call Jesus' divinity into question, arrange for Andrei's demise—on a train headed for Rome, he's tossed out a window to his death.� Andrei leaves behind a clue in the form of some cryptic notes for his close friend, Father Nil, whose pursuit of evidence that there was a 13th apostle puts him in peril. Nil's foes include an improbable odd couple of assassins, a former Mossad agent and a member of Hamas. Some readers may be irked by the author's failure to explain such matters as why a key volume that leads Nil in the right direction is not better protected or why the ruthless forces behind Andrei's killing don't just eliminate Nil early on. (Sept.)
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