|
Paperback Kindle ebook
ISBN:
1602900124 Format: Paperback, 400pp Publisher: OakTara Publishing Group LLC Pub. Date: January 2008 |
||
Visit my Amazon Bookstore to see all my books |
|
Buy this Book... Buy Centurion at Amazon.com Buy Centurion: A Novel as a Kindle ebook
Coming soon to |
Find this Book... Coming soon to many other purchase search engines.
|
A longing
heart. An unlikely friendship. Love...and the bitterest of betrayals. |
|
Who was
the man ordered to crucify Christ?
|
|
What did he witness that led him to proclaim, “This was
surely the Son of God?”
Traditionally, we named him, the Centurion Abenadar, and we know almost nothing about him. The novel, Centurion,
gives life to Centurion Abenadar.
Abenadar’s life is based on primary source documents
about the Roman Legion. Abenadar was close enough to the Procurator of
Judea, Pontius Pilate, that Pilate trusted him with the responsibility of
the controversial and potentially explosive crucifixion of Christ. At the
same time, Abenadar was a man to whom Pilate effortlessly gave the dirty
work of the crucifixion, the execution for which Pilate himself would not
take responsibility.
Centurion casts Abenadar as the bastard child of the Roman ambassador to the court of Herod the Great. Abenadar’s mother was a Judean girl, the Roman ambassador’s concubine. When the ambassador returned to Rome, he left her pregnant, and in disgrace. The girl returned to her home in Nazareth of Galilee. She named her son, Abenadar, after his father.
Abenadar’s father did not leave him with nothing—he
granted his son Roman citizenship. When Abenadar accepted his legacy, he
also discovered a place in the Roman Legion stationed in Galilee.
Abenadar found in the legion and Roman citizenship a boon and a curse.
From his mother’s training in Herod’s court, Abenadar spoke and read
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and from the taint of his father’s legacy and
his hard childhood, Abenadar learned to be a cunning fighter. The legion
honed these skills. Centurion maps the rise of Abenadar through
the ranks and units in Palestine until he is a chief advisor and one of
the lead Centurions in Jerusalem. In this capacity, he both advised
Pilate and became the vehicle to enact Pilate’s decree.
Abenadar was more than a Centurion; he was also half
Judean. His abilities derived from his understanding and communication
with the people of Judea. But Abenadar was a man, not a piece of
cardboard—all the forces in his life shaped and formed him. He fervently
trusted in God—and in the legion. When he accidentally rescued a
prostitute, Ruth, in the streets of Jerusalem, he redeemed her—for
himself. Ruth was a destitute girl; the death of her parents forced her
into her past life. After Abenadar took her in, she lived a semblance of
the life she was raised to lead. Life with Ruth changed Abenadar. He
returned to the Judean practice of his youth, and through Ruth’s faith,
Abenadar’s life became connected to the new prophet—Jesus.
Abenadar experienced the events in the city of
Jerusalem from inside the court of Pilate and from the city streets. When
Jesus was brought before Pilate, Abenadar became his interpreter and
translator. When Pilate gave Jesus over to the Priests, he instructed
Abenadar to crucify Jesus.
Through Abenadar’s eyes, Centurion reveals the
crucifixion and the resurrection. Abenadar’s greatest fear was that he
would lose Ruth, for she believed the message of the prophet he must
execute. But Abenadar misjudged Ruth’s love and her faith. And he
misjudged how his experience of the Christ would change him.
|
Reviews: | ||||||||||||||||
Google alerts found this for me about Centurion at
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30030
"So I finished reading "Centurion" by L.D. Alford a while back. If you
want to know how legionaries trained, how they rose through the ranks, and
how they actually fought, this book gives a good account. Apparently, the
author visited Rome, Jerusalem, and other places to learn first-hand what
was required to make a legionary. |
||||||||||||||||
See the bottom of this All the Difference brochure. | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
Book
Review CENTURION By L.D. Alford Capstone, 978-1-60290-012-7, PB, 382 pages, $17.95 The book review below appeared in the Summer 2008 edition of Church Libraries, A Publication of the Evangelical Church Library Association. Click this link to see the review in context: |
||||||||||||||||
Book
Review CENTURION By L.D. Alford Capstone, 978-1-60290-012-7, PB, 382 pages, $17.95 Abendar and his mother endured disapproving stares in the village of Natzeret, but so did Yesuha son of Yosef and Miryam. The two boy outcasts became fast friends. Abendar then left his village to join the Roman Legion and eventually rose to the rank of centurion. Abendar subsequently rescued Ruth, a woman from the streets, and fell in love with her. As the story now unfolds after years have passed, we see that Ruth believes that Jesus is the Messiah, but Abendar is doubtful, although curious. However, his duty to the legion and Pontius Pilate may cause him to lose everything-Ruth's love, his friendship with Jesus, and his soul's redemption. "Centurion" is a heartwarming tale about an unlikely friendship, love and a painful betrayal. A passage from Psalms begins each chapter and gives a clue as to what will happen. Alford does a beautiful job of creating realistic characters and believable dialogue. This is a book for teens and adults. The reader gets a picture of daily life in Jesus' time. Highly recommended. http://www.aboiteindependent.com/content/features_content.htm |
||||||||||||||||
News: | ||||||||||||||||
East Wichita News Mar 08 |
Centurion: The World of the Legion in Palestine during the First Century |
|
Where: East Wichita Shepherd's Center 4407 East Douglas Wichita, KS 67218 316 682-0504 When: 25 March to 13 May 07 Tuesdays 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. What: Session #1 - Abenadar Session #2 - Levant (Palestine) 6 bce to 35 ce Session #4 - Training a Legionnaire Session #5 - Making of a Centurion |
|
|
|
Review this Book...
If you read and like this book, please write a review at...
|
|
Meet the Author
|
||
|
||
The
finest escape in literature is an escape into a real and inviting
culture—so asserts L. D. Alford a novelist who explores with originality
those cultures and societies we think we already know. He builds tales
that make ancient people and times real to us. His stories uniquely
explore the connections between events close and familiar and events of
the past—he cleaves them together with threads of reality that bring the
past alive. L. D. Alford is familiar with technology and cultures—he
earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, an M.S. in
Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in
Aerospace Engineering from the University of Dayton. He is a graduate of Air
War College, Air Command and Staff College, and the US Air Force Test
Pilot School. He is widely traveled and has spent long periods in Europe
and Central America. His writing includes over 40 technical articles,
three historical fiction novels, and three science fiction novels. L. D.
Alford is an author who combines intimate scientific and cultural
knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality.
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Past Centurion Events |
|
Invitation by Dorian Graham |