Then he knew that never again would he see his beloved country and his beloved countrymen, nor the golden Temple, nor the holy city, Jerusalem. He began to weep, and he whispered, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right arm wither—”
He moved across the deck for fear he would be too stricken with grief, and he stared across the plain of light which was the Great Sea and which would bear him to Rome. He was only a man. How could he endure it that never again would he see his kindred, nor hear the sounds of his country, but be forever an exile, going into an unknown future and to an unknown death? He would not be buried in this sacred soil. He knew that as surely as he knew that he was departing. What earth would hold his bones? What friends would mourn him? He looked at the sky which was too radiant to gaze upon, and he dropped his chin on his folded arms and it seemed to him that he had lived too long and was too weary. Of what use was he now, to God, an old man, when youth was needed? God deserved the young to witness for Him.
Then, as he leaned his arms on the railing and his head was bent upon them in a prostration of human sorrow, it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his father, Hillel ben Borush, as he had heard it in his youth, and the voice of Hillel was tender and strong and loving and prayerful:
“‘O God, You are my God!
Early will I seek You.
My soul thirsts for You
In a dry and thirsty land,
Where no water is;
To see Your power and Your glory,
So I have seen You in the Sanctuary,
Because of Your lovingkindness,
Is better than life!
My lips shall praise You,
Thus will I bless You while I live!
I will lift up my hands in Your Name,
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips—’”
“‘My soul follows hard after You—!’”
Saul lifted his head and took a last look at his land, for the ship was moving and the sails were filled with wind and light. His eyes welled with tears, but his lips smiled with love, and he lifted his hand and said,
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One!”
His soul was strong again, and young. He saw his country drop below the curve of the world and he knew that the Messias would return again to His people and all the earth would rejoice, crying, “Hosannah!” For all nations were His own.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Holy Bible
Reader’s Digest Articles on the Apostles
Josephus Antiquities, etc.
Juvenal
The Vatican Libraries
Life Magazine, 1964, Series on the Bible
Museums, Athens and Israel
Philostratus
Pliny
St. Jerome, Comments on Philippians
W. P. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism
The Catholic Encyclopedia
A. Dreissman, Paul
R. A. Knox, St Paul’s Gospel
W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen
J. Lebreton and J. Zeiller, The History of Primitive Christianity
G. Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle
Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History
Henri Daniel-Rops, The Heroes of God and Jesus and His Times
The Metamorphoses of Ovid
Tacitus History
Aubrey de Selincourt, The Early History of Rome
Dr. Hugh S. Schonfield, Those Incredible Christians
Aristotle’s Politics and Ethics
Charles M. Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy
Phaedo of Plato
And literally hundreds of other books concerning Roman, Greek and Jewish history, and the history of Christianity, too numerous to mention.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
“Many novels and books about St. Paul have told in marvelous detail what he did and accomplished in his life and missionary journeys. I am concerned with what he was, a man like ourselves with our own despairs, doubts, anxieties and angers and intolerances, and ‘lusts of the flesh.’ Many books have been concerned with the Apostle. I am concerned with the man, the human being, as well as the dauntless saint.”
“It may cheer many—and depress others—to realize that man never really changes and the exact problems of Paul’s world are the same that confront us today. But man’s nature can never be changed in any particular except by the power of God and religion, and if I can influence in this book only ten people, I will feel I have succeeded.”
Taylor Caldwell
Table of Contents
Title
Publisher
Description
Booklist
Dedication
Epigraph
Foreword
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Part Two
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Part Three
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Bibliography
Author’s Note
Great Lion of God Page 81