“He saluted courteously and went on. He heard her weeping softly as she returned to her rooms. The death of the old life was amazingly easy. But birth was slow and painful beyond belief.” – The Spear, Louis de Wohl

In The Spear by Louis de Wohl and published by Ignatius Press, Cassius Longinus was born into the elite circles of Roman life. His mother, a devotee of the Roman gods, died when he was young. His father, a retired general, was a gambler and a man typical of his time and place. When this story opens, Cassius, an officer in the Twenty-First Legion, has returned home from the German frontier. 

Because so many stories hinge on romance, our young soldier has fallen in love with a society favorite, the beautiful Claudia Procula.  Longinus hopes to marry Claudia despite the fact that much more powerful men have the same ambition and no scruples about ruining the life of an adversary. In a matter of mere pages, Cassius descends from blissful betrothal to slavery. Before the story is finished, however, the slave will be made free in more ways than one. And… he will be remembered forever as the man who pierced the side of the crucified Christ. 

General Longinus, loyal to the emperor and connected to the old powerful families, has acquired an insurmountable debt. Conspirators against the emperor have tempted the general into a gamble that he could not resist with the sole objective of the Longinus family ruination. Not understanding the layers of this powerplay, Cassius sells himself into slavery to pay his father’s debt. But, the enemies of the general are not satisfied until the old soldier is dead. And so, Cassius sold his life cheaply for no real gain. 

Now a slave and a former soldier, Cassius is sent to the Circus, where he surprises everyone and wins the favor of the fickle crowd. Freed and re-enlisted in the army, Cassius rises up to the status of a centurion and is stationed in Jerusalem. It is here that his story becomes intertwined with those of the disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Fans of Ben-Hur, The Robe, the movie Risen, the TV series A. D. and The Chosen may wonder how they have missed this exciting and beautiful conversion story that was originally published in 1955. It is now available not only in print and ebook, but in an excellent audiobook as well. 

This biblical drama respects Our Lord, and whenever he is in the scene, He speaks and acts as is written in the Gospels. His disciples, however, are fleshed out and given fascinating and endearing backstories that help us to see Him more clearly. The narrator mostly follows Longinus and reveals to us a Roman point of view of the events of the last year of Christ’s life. Additionally, we become attached to some Jewish characters who help us to see more clearly the tension between the Jewish sects and the revolutionaries who try to hasten the coming of the Messiah. 

Just like in Ben-Hur or The Chosen, I found myself swept up in the story of a particular character, loving what I was reading, and then caught entirely by surprise that this was “that character” from the Gospel. 

As an example, there is a Jewish woman who is in a bad marriage where she is being taken advantage of. When, through a set of complex events, she is caught in the act of adultery, the reader is thinking about her. And her lover. We are not thinking about the woman in the Gospel who has been divorced from her husband and is about to be stoned to death. 

In the Gospel, her judge, Our Lord, tells her to go and sin no more. He does not affirm her sin. He does not tell her that her marriage is just. He simply tells her to go and sin no more. But what happened to that woman? It is inconceivable that her husband would take her back. It would be sinful for her to return to her lover. What did she do? Where could she go? Who would accept her? What would she make of her life? 

Christ did not answer those material questions for her in the scene. But He did forgive her. So, how would the Early Church respond to her? This story offers a thoughtful and achingly beautiful imagining. One that unfolds slowly and carefully. One that is just exactly as it should be. One that clearly points to the death of her old life and the slow and anguishing birth of a new life in Him. 

This novel is just over 400 pages. I started it on a whim last week, and I could not put it down. I was looking for excuses to fold laundry or go for walks so I could keep listening to the audio. I kept the spine at hand so I could see the names and make sure I understood them as de Wohl sometimes chose Latin spellings of names – like Pilatus (Pilate), and sometimes the Hebrew spellings of names – like Yeusha (Jesus) and Jochanaan (John). While I appreciate that he was attempting to keep the names in their vernacular, some of the names were dissimilar enough to our modern bible translations that I just needed to be sure. 

As I hinted at above, this story does highlight the immorality of the Roman culture and compares it to the strict rules of the Hebrew culture. This is a very good thing. But, the Roman characters really do not respect the Jewish laws about adultery, and this is a key storyline in the latter half of the book. Therefore, de Wohl includes some general comments about the Roman view of sex outside marriage, and then there is an actual scene of adultery involving the woman from the Gospel who was to be stoned. I will say that the scene happens so gracefully that I wasn’t even sure that it had happened until she confessed it to her husband.  I am including a photo of the scene below. For this reason, I would say that parents may wish to pre-read this book before handing it off to a young teen. 

Cassius raised the blade of the spear to his lips, as Judah had done. He laid the spear next to the crosses…. Bad company, Lord? That’s what they so often accused you of, didn’t they? Keeping bad company? Thank God you did. Where would we all be if you had not?

“You need the spear no longer,” Peter said. “Be a spear in the Lord’s hand. Let your words and deeds open the hearts of men for him.”

Can I do that, Lord? Not alone. Alone I can do nothing.

“He loves you,” Judah said. “More than you love yourself.”

Someone once told me about the sevenfold love. A brillian man, Seneca. Be he did not know you, Lord, or he would have known that there is a love beyond those seven, encompassing them all, ennobling them all and surpassing them all. Your love, which makes everything holy.

I truly loved this book and hope that we can do a book club on it sooner rather than later. This was a great change-up from my routine of reading Ben-Hur during the Lenten and Easter seasons!

SPOILER ALERT!
**Photos of the adultery scene**