Historical novels from the world of the Bible
Stories from the Tanakh, told by those who were there.
Historical novels to listen to and to read. The first series takes you to Anathoth, a village of priests an hour from Jerusalem, in the years between the army of Assyria and the fall of the city.
“Twice my family fled to Jerusalem from a world empire.”
Gilad, the youngest brother of Baruch the scribe
In exile in Babylon, he tells what his grandfather saw and what he lived through himself. Of a boy who ran across the hills in the summer of 701. Of a stable where the letters were taught at night by the light of a lamp, when no one else would teach them. Of a jar full of shards, and on every shard a name.
The Bible mentions the people of this family in no more than half a sentence. The novel tells what they might have lived through, as precisely as the sources allow.
The first series
The Shards of Anathoth
Book 1 · The Words That Were Found
Anathoth, in the summer of the year 701. A runner comes over the hills: The army of Assyria is in the land. The boy Mahseiah flees with his family into the city, hears the voice of the enemy from the wall, and in the morning sees what happened in the night. He will tell of it all his life.
Eighty years later, a scroll is found in the House of the Eternal. In between lie the dark years of Manasseh, a prophet who stays silent for nine days in the straw of a stable, a farmer who teaches the letters at night by the light of a lamp, and a jar that holds the names of the lost.
- Era
- 701 to 586 BCE
- Family
- Four generations from Anathoth
- Book 1
- 20 chapters, 701 to 622
- Told from
- The Hebrew text
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The era
A hundred and fifteen years that changed everything
Between the army of Sennacherib and the fall of Jerusalem lies the age of the great prophets: Isaiah, Huldah, Jeremiah. The novel follows it the way one family lived it, from below, from the village, across four generations.
-
The Assyrian camp in the Shephelah. Reconstruction. 701BCEThe army of Assyria
Sennacherib, the mightiest king in the world, marches through Judah. Forty-six fortified cities fall, Lachish is stormed. His army camps before Jerusalem, and his spokesman calls up to the wall in Judean.
2 Kings 18 and 19 -
In the passage beneath the City of David. Reconstruction. c. 701beneath the cityThe tunnel
Hezekiah’s stonecutters cut a passage through the rock from both ends, so that the water of the spring would flow into the city and not to the enemy. You can wade through it to this day.
2 Kings 20:20 -
Letters in the stable, by a single lamp. 686to 642The dark years
Manasseh sets up an idol in the House of the Eternal, and whoever objects disappears. In Anathoth, a farmer teaches the letters at night in the stable by the light of a lamp, so that the words will not be lost.
2 Kings 21 -
The scroll in the chamber. Reconstruction. 622BCEThe scroll that was found
During repairs to the House of the Eternal, the high priest Hilkiah finds a scroll. Shaphan the scribe reads it to the young King Josiah, and the king tears his clothes.
2 Kings 22 -
In a potter’s workshop. Reconstruction. c. 600in the potter’s houseClay in the hand
Jeremiah watches a potter. The vessel is spoiled in his hands, and he shapes it into a new one. So, says the prophet, is Israel in the hand of the Eternal.
Jeremiah 18 -
On the road into exile. Reconstruction. 586BCEThe road to Babylon
Jerusalem falls, the House of the Eternal burns. Those who survive are led away, many weeks’ journey to the east. And yet the story does not end there.
2 Kings 25 · Jeremiah 39
By the rivers of Babylon
Told so that nothing is forgotten
In Babylon, Gilad sits by a lamp in the evening and tells what was told to him: of the night before the wall, of the shards in the jar, of the scroll. And he holds to what the eldest of the family gave him to take along: Tell both. And leave enough out.
An evening in Babylon, c. 560 BCE. Reconstruction.
The family
A village an hour from Jerusalem
Anathoth is a village of priests in the land of Benjamin and the home of the prophet Jeremiah. Here lives the family through whose eyes we see the story. Some of them really do appear in the Bible.
Mahseiah
Eleven years old when the army comes. Learns the letters from the priest and passes them on all his life.
Attested in the Bible: Jeremiah 32:12Elkanah
He heard how Samaria fell, and he taught the family the art of telling.
Fictional characterNeriah
Mahseiah’s son, the father of the three brothers. He lives between Anathoth and the city.
Attested in the Bible: Jeremiah 32:12Baruch
Neriah’s eldest son. He will write the words of Jeremiah on a scroll.
Attested in the Bible: Jeremiah 36Seraiah
The middle son, later in the king’s service. He travels with the king to Babylon, years before the city falls.
Attested in the Bible: Jeremiah 51:59Gilad
The youngest brother. He listens, he remembers everything, and in Babylon he passes it on.
Fictional character
Free
The Companion Kit for the Bible Audio Novels
For everyone who wants to know, while listening, where they are, who is on the throne and what archaeology has found. To print out, to look things up, to pass on to your reading group.
- The Kings of Judah and IsraelAll the kings at a glance, with their years of reign, the prophets and the great empires of their time. A poster to print out.
- Map: Judah around 700 BCEAll the places in the novel, Sennacherib’s campaign and the road to Jerusalem.
- Jerusalem in the Time of HezekiahWall, tunnel, New Quarter, gates: Where the scenes take place.
- Jeremiah in Chronological OrderThe Book of Jeremiah is not arranged by time. Here is a reading plan that is.
- The Family TreeFor Book 1, without giving away what happens later.
- The Seal of BaruchEleven real finds from this period and what they reveal about the people in the novel.
- Discussion GuideQuestions and Bible passages for every chapter, for reading circles and Bible study groups.
Who writes
Micha Levzion
Micha Levzion lives in Israel and, under this name, writes everything that is created under the roof of Schalom Israel. He renders the Bible passages in the novels himself, from the Hebrew text.
The novels hold to what the Bible and archaeology say about this period. The afterword of each book states what is invented, and in the index of characters every figure attested in the Bible is marked.
Listen and read
How to get the novels
By email
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