Seeds of Christianity

Having heard the Christmas story told and retold more times than we can count, it is easy to view Mary and Joseph as nothing more than paper people whom we encounter every year on the Christmas cards that crowd our mantle. In Road to Bethlehem, a prelude to his popular Seeds of Christianity Series, E. G. Lewis rounds out this flat, two-dimensional view of Mary and Joseph. In his hands they become real flesh and blood people who live, love and interact with the world around them.

Author E.G. Lewis has paid careful attention to detail, providing a carefully studied historical background and sketching a consistent view of the unknown with a masterly pen. Follow the saga of Rivkah who accompanied her father to Bethlehem where she held Mary's newborn son. Meet Shemu'el, the young man she loves. Follow them as they convert to the Way of Yeshua.

Things are good for young Rivkah. Her father's just givenher a lamb to start her own flock, and Shemu'el wants to marry her. The young shepherdess accompanies her father to Bethlehem where, with Mary's help, sheholds her newborn son. But Mary, Joseph and Jesus are soon gone and Herod's soldiers begin killing the children of her village.

Rivkah and her family convert to the Way of Yeshua. Temple authorities refuse to buy lambs from Yeshua's followers. Unable to survive in their home settlement, they move to Jerusalem. Increasing persecution against Believers forces them out again. Leaving Jerusalem, they head for Antioch with Simon Peter to establish the Church there.

In Book Three of the Seeds of Christianity Series the Church at Antioch Comes into its own. Follow the lives of Rivkah and Shemu’el as they continue to spread the good news in Antioch and beyond. Tensions surface as the number of non-Jewish converts rises in Antioch. Barnabus brings Paul, but some oppose his new role. Sha’oul, now renamed Paul, leaves on his first missionary journey accompanied by Barnabus and Yohan Markus. This saga of the Early Church takes a troubling turn when their youngest son adopts a pagan lifestyle.

Claudius is gone and Nero now wears the crown. Jews are returning to Rome meaning Simon Peter can resume his missionary work among the Romans. Shemu'el and Rivkah and their family have set sail for Rome in hopes of joining Peter and re-uniting with Atticus and Marcelina. Meanwhile, a revolt breaks out on the Empire's western fringes. Led by Queen Boaddicea of the Iceni, she aims to right the wrongs done to her and, in process, wrest the new Province of Britannia from Roman hands.