BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST
(All Time Bestselling Novel)
by LEW WALLACE
[Bestselling American Novel Adapted as Record 11 Academy Award Winning Movie w/ Charlton Heston - Matched only by Lord of the Rings and Titanic]
ALL-TIME BESTSELLER CHRISTIAN NOVEL
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is the highly acclaimed novel by Lew Wallace. The novel was a phenomenal best-seller upon original publication, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. Book sales then surpassed Gone with the Wind, following the release of the highly successful 1959 MGM film adaptation; the film winning eleven Academy Awards. The book was the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope, receiving benediction from Pope Leo XIII.
The story tells of the adventures of Judah Ben-Hur, Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala arrives back home as an ambitious commanding officer of the Roman legions. They come to realize how much they have changed and now hold very different views and aspirations. During a military parade a tile falls from the roof of Judah's house and barely misses the Roman governor. Although Messala knows that they are not guilty, he condemns the Ben-Hur family. Without trial, Judah is sent to work until death as a Roman galley slave, his mother and sister are thrown into prison and all the family property is confiscated. Through fate and good fortune, Judah survives and manages to return to Jerusalem, to seek revenge against his one-time friend and redeem his family. Running in parallel with Ben-Hur's narrative is the unfolding story of Jesus, who comes from the same region and is a similar age, mirroring themes of betrayal, conviction and redemption. Ben-Hur witnesses and is inspired by the rise of the Christ figure and his following who challenge Roman tyranny and talk of keys to a greater kingdom.
The name "Ben Hur" derives from the Hebrew for "Son of white linen".
EXCERPT
Afraid to speak the while, the mother listened, discerning the matter plainly. Judah had gone to the palace on the Market-place, allured by love of a playmate whom he thought to find exactly as he had been at the parting years before; a man met him, and, in place of laughter and references to the sports of the past, the man had been full of the future, and talked of glory to be won, and of riches and power. Unconscious of the effect, the visitor had come away hurt in pride, yet touched with a natural ambition; but she, the jealous mother, saw it, and, not knowing the turn the aspiration might take, became at once Jewish in her fear. What if it lured him away from the patriarchal faith? In her view, that consequence was more dreadful than any or all others. She could discover but one way to avert it, and she set about the task, her native power reinforced by love to such degree that her speech took a masculine strength and at times a poet's fervor.
"There never has been a people," she began, "who did not think themselves at least equal to any other; never a great nation, my son, that did not believe itself the very superior. When the Roman looks down upon Israel and laughs, he merely repeats the folly of the Egyptian, the Assyrian, and the Macedonian; and as the laugh is against God, the result will be the same."
Her voice became firmer.
"There is no law by which to determine the superiority of nations; hence the vanity of the claim, and the idleness of disputes about it. A people risen, run their race, and die either of themselves or at the hands of another, who, succeeding to their power, take possession of their place, and upon their monuments write new names; such is history. If I were called upon to symbolize God and man in the simplest form, I would draw a straight line and a circle, and of the line I would say, 'This is God, for he alone moves forever straightforward,' and of the circle, 'This is man--such is his progress.' I do not mean that there is no difference between the careers of nations; no two are alike. The difference, however, is not, as some say, in the extent of the circle they describe or the space of earth they cover, but in the sphere of their movement, the highest being nearest God.
"To stop here, my son, would be to leave the subject where we began. Let us go on. There are signs by which to measure the height of the circle each nation runs while in its course. By them let us compare the Hebrew and the Roman.
"The simplest of all the signs is the daily life of the people. Of this I will only say, Israel has at times forgotten God, while the Roman never knew him; consequently comparison is not possible."
![BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (All Time Bestselling Novel) by LEW WALLACE [Bestselling American Novel Adapted as Record 11 Academy Award Winning Movie w/ Charlton Heston - Matched only by Lord of the Rings and Titanic] ALL-TIME BESTSELLER CHRISTIAN NOVEL](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/2940013032224_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
![BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (All Time Bestselling Novel) by LEW WALLACE [Bestselling American Novel Adapted as Record 11 Academy Award Winning Movie w/ Charlton Heston - Matched only by Lord of the Rings and Titanic] ALL-TIME BESTSELLER CHRISTIAN NOVEL](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/2940013032224_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)
