The Word
Irving Wallace
The Word is arguably one of Irving Wallace’s finest works. He writes of
religion and that conundrum called “faith”. A Mr. Stephen Randall gets a
call . . . an Italian archeologist has discovered a stunning ancient
manuscript, the Gospel of James which details that Jesus did not die on the
cross but survived to continue his ministry. That he did not die is a miracle.
Mr. Randall is put in charge of public relations to handle the discovery and
learn whether the manuscript is authentic or fake. Written in 1972, 30 years
before The Da Vinci Code, Irving Wallace packaged a great suspense
novel.
The test of a believer's faith is to continue to believe even when experience
and science tell him not to. In The Word, the hero Steve Randall, is initially
a man of no faith in the Word of God. He is not unhappy with that nor does
he feel any the less a man for that. During the course of the novel, he
regains his Faith, only to lose it again by the book's end.
Steve Randall works for a book company, and it is his job to publicize a
new version of the Bible purportedly based on the unexpected find of the
Lost Scriptures of James the Just, the brother of Jesus. This lost gospel
proves beyond doubt that Jesus lived, he walked, he had his ministry, and
he was crucified. As Randal reads an advanced copy of this gospel, he
rebuilds his lost faith and becomes a true believer in the Word. Now, afire
with holy zeal, he prepares to publicize and publish this new Bible in the
hopes of regalvanizing the billions of Christians world wide. Unfortunately,
for his new-found sense of holy mission, he is given incontrovertible
evidence that the new gospel is a magnificent fraud, perpetrated by a
master hoaxer who has a decades-old feud against the Catholic church.
When he attempts to bring this evidence to the attention of his superiors,
they stonewall him by assuring him that the proof is itself a hoax, and that
the new Bible is the real McCoy. When Randall ignores warnings to lay off,
he encounters men trying to kill him and to bury the evidence of this forgery
for all eternity. By the book's end, he fails, and the new Bible is published
amidst waves of hosannas.
Part of the beauty of The Word lies in Wallace's interweaving a tightly knit
plot with flashing-eyes-and-heaving-bosom sex scenes coupled with a
surprisingly fascinating series of digressions into Biblical history,
mythology, and publishing. I learned a great deal about the historical life
and times of Jesus Christ, even if some of this 'knowledge' was itself part of
the fraud. Much of the plot revolved around nothing more than a bunch of
learned Biblical scholars arguing the merits of theology and faith. By the
time I got to the end, I became convinced that the majority of human beings
fall into one of two categories: those who are gullible enough to accept the
most wicked fraud in history as genuine and those who help to perpetuate
that fraud. Perhaps Wallace gives the reader a hint of this two-level
division of faith in his introductory series of three quotes which precede the
novel, the last of which reads: 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to
invent Him.'
Well worth the time spent reading.
/tdw/
Irving Wallace
The Word is arguably one of Irving Wallace’s finest works. He writes of
religion and that conundrum called “faith”. A Mr. Stephen Randall gets a
call . . . an Italian archeologist has discovered a stunning ancient
manuscript, the Gospel of James which details that Jesus did not die on the
cross but survived to continue his ministry. That he did not die is a miracle.
Mr. Randall is put in charge of public relations to handle the discovery and
learn whether the manuscript is authentic or fake. Written in 1972, 30 years
before The Da Vinci Code, Irving Wallace packaged a great suspense
novel.
The test of a believer's faith is to continue to believe even when experience
and science tell him not to. In The Word, the hero Steve Randall, is initially
a man of no faith in the Word of God. He is not unhappy with that nor does
he feel any the less a man for that. During the course of the novel, he
regains his Faith, only to lose it again by the book's end.
Steve Randall works for a book company, and it is his job to publicize a
new version of the Bible purportedly based on the unexpected find of the
Lost Scriptures of James the Just, the brother of Jesus. This lost gospel
proves beyond doubt that Jesus lived, he walked, he had his ministry, and
he was crucified. As Randal reads an advanced copy of this gospel, he
rebuilds his lost faith and becomes a true believer in the Word. Now, afire
with holy zeal, he prepares to publicize and publish this new Bible in the
hopes of regalvanizing the billions of Christians world wide. Unfortunately,
for his new-found sense of holy mission, he is given incontrovertible
evidence that the new gospel is a magnificent fraud, perpetrated by a
master hoaxer who has a decades-old feud against the Catholic church.
When he attempts to bring this evidence to the attention of his superiors,
they stonewall him by assuring him that the proof is itself a hoax, and that
the new Bible is the real McCoy. When Randall ignores warnings to lay off,
he encounters men trying to kill him and to bury the evidence of this forgery
for all eternity. By the book's end, he fails, and the new Bible is published
amidst waves of hosannas.
Part of the beauty of The Word lies in Wallace's interweaving a tightly knit
plot with flashing-eyes-and-heaving-bosom sex scenes coupled with a
surprisingly fascinating series of digressions into Biblical history,
mythology, and publishing. I learned a great deal about the historical life
and times of Jesus Christ, even if some of this 'knowledge' was itself part of
the fraud. Much of the plot revolved around nothing more than a bunch of
learned Biblical scholars arguing the merits of theology and faith. By the
time I got to the end, I became convinced that the majority of human beings
fall into one of two categories: those who are gullible enough to accept the
most wicked fraud in history as genuine and those who help to perpetuate
that fraud. Perhaps Wallace gives the reader a hint of this two-level
division of faith in his introductory series of three quotes which precede the
novel, the last of which reads: 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to
invent Him.'
Well worth the time spent reading.
/tdw/
| Thom's Review The Word |
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