Book
Recommendations
With a Messianic
Flavor
Introduction
The
Zion
Covenant
The
Zion
Chronicles
The
A. D.
Chronicles
Purchasing
Books
Bodie & Brock Thoene
Like most of you, I only have 24 hours in my day and it's absolutely amazing how quickly those hours are filled up, so it's hard to find time to read. Most boys don't usually list "reading" as one of their favorite past-times, and I was no different from most - until I was in college. As part of a Children's Literature Class that I was taking in college for my Education Degree, I first read C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and suddenly discovered how much I enjoyed reading.
After my introduction to Messianic Judaism and the Jewish Roots of my Christian Faith in the 1980s, I discovered Bodie & Brock Thoene's books and have been a fan ever since. Their stories are historical fiction with an emphasis on Israel, Christianity and Judaism. Their stories are rich in culture, exciting, historically accurate and many times have brought me to tears as their words have touched a place in my heart.
If you've never read any of their series, I recommend their stories. You'll not be disappointed. To learn more about the Thoene's:
The Zion Covenant - Book 1 Vienna Prelude Her own identity was safely disguised. But what about those she loved most? They would soon disappear with all the others, unless ... In pre-World War II Austria, Elisa Lindheim, a violinist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, is of Jewish heritage but has adopted an Aryan stage name. Thus she is able to travel and play in Germany even though a 1935 law forbade Jewish musicians to do so. Her dear friend Leah, a cellist already introduced to Thoene readers in A Daughter of Zion, and her husband Shimon must escape Austria or perish in the coming Holocaust.
John Murphy, a reporter for the New York Times in Berlin and Austria, becomes linked with English politicians in a plan to overthrow Hitler. Elisa and John's mutual connections with the Jewish Underground entangle them in a web of intrigue, danger, and conspiracy that neither could have known.
The Zion Covenant - Book 2
Prague Counterpoint
A million little lights flickered against the spreading darkness. How could she abandon even one of them to extinction?
In Vienna Prelude, Elisa Lindheim risked her life helping others escape pre-World War II Austria. The climactic ending finds her safely in Czechoslovakia, but not for long. A million others are endangered, and she cannot still their silent cry for help.
Prague Counterpoint finds Elisa watching in horror as Hitler's forces sweep through her beloved Vienna and he directs his ambition toward the takeover of Czechoslovakia. As Europe slides irrevocably toward the brink of war, Elisa is torn between the Underground's lofty political goals and the safety of two little boys ... and underneath it all, her heart years for John. Will she ever see him again?
The Zion Covenant - Book 3
Munich Signature
A battered freighter carried them from Hitler's tightening net, but the harbors of the world slammed shut.
Munich Signature finds Leah and little Louis attempting to escape Austria over the treacherous foot paths of the Alps while Murphy and Elisa begin their trip toward New York and the promise of healing from Charles' disfigurement.
But then Elisa is once more caught in the web of international intrigue. While Jewish refugees from Germany float homelessly on the open seas, she stands precariously between Hitler's domination of Europe and the possibility of destroying his power once and for all. The information Elisa must deliver could be a key to stopping the madman.
The Zion Covenant - Book 4
Jerusalem Interlude
Will the music of hope in their souls survive Zion's terrible reality?
For Jews in prewar Europe, the terrifying truth is uncovered: Truly they have no place to go. Escape or perish, but escape to where? As Central Europe is taken over by the Nazis under celebrated headlines of "Peace in Our Times", hundreds of thousands pay the price for Hitler's international deception.
In Jerusalem Interlude, Leah and Shimon Feldstein finally reach the Promised Land. They enter their new life under the shadow of the Western Wall, only to find that a longer, more sinister shadow is casting its darkness over the Holy Land. Will they ever find true peace, a resting place for their spirits? Or will their time in Jerusalem be only a brief interlude in the ongoing struggle for a homeland!
The Zion Covenant - Book 5
Danzig Passage
Kristal Nacht, the Night of Broken Glass, shatters the last illusions for thousands who hoped to escape the Nazi terror.
As the synagogues of Berlin burn and Jewish homes are plundered, two families face the grim reality of life in the New Germany. Anna Lindheim's sister Helen and her pastor husband Karl Ibsen are arrested for helping Jews. The Ibsen children, Lori and Jamie, must find a way to escape their Nazi pursuers and get past the iron gates that keep them imprisoned in the Reich.
Young Peter Wallich, with his mother, sister and baby brother, faces the same dilemma. How can he, a Jew, get them out of Berlin to safety? How can they reach Danzig, the one place that offers hope, the promise of freedom. An then there is Lucy in such desperate straits herself. How can she possibly help these children?
The Zion Covenant - Book 6
Warsaw Requiem
Having overrun Czechoslovakia, the iron baton of Hitler's Third Reich is poised to orchestrate a requiem for Warsaw.
Lori Ibsen and Jacob Kalner, along with Jamie, Mark and Alfie, take refuge in Danzig, hoping they will be safe there while awaiting a ship to England. Peter Wallich escapes to Warsaw, desperately seeking a place among the Jews in Muranow Square. Lucy Strasburg, about to deliver her "S.S. child", stays behind in Danzig, hoping to evade the clutches of Wolf von Fritschauer. But there is no safe place in prewar Europe.
In London, Helen Isben and her sister Anna Lindheim wait and pray for the safe release of the Ibsen children. But as they wait, the sinister cloud of Hitler's wrath spreads across the Channel like poisonous gas, ready to annihilate all those who oppose the extension of the Fuhrer's power.
The Zion Chronicles - Book 1
The Gates of Zion
Who would guess that a few innocent photos could entangle her in such a desperate web of intrigue and peril?
Ellie, a young American photojournalist, finds herself in the Jerusalem of 1947. She unwittingly becomes a pawn in a political chess game when she photographs some ancient scrolls discovered by Bedouins. David seems to love her dearly, but Moshe has a purpose and commitment in life that intrigues her more than she can say. Through it all, Ellie discovers a people, a spirit and a person who profoundly change the direction of her life.
A sweeping historical novel of a young woman and young nation searching for identity, for meaning to life. This first book in THE ZION CHRONICLES vividly portrays the intense struggle of the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the forces which engulf the Middle East in conflict and controversy even today.
The Zion Chronicles - Book 2
A Daughter of Zion
She survived the Nazi desolation at great personal cost - will the contempt of her own people cost her even more?
A Daughter of Zion centers around a returning Jewess named Rachel who survived the Nazi desolation, but only at a great personal cost. Smuggled into the besieged Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, she discovers members of her long-lost family. Rachel decides she cannot leave the Old City or the people who stand as one thin line between its survival.
When secrets of her past are uncovered, she is discredited before the very people she wants so desperately to help. Alienated from her own people and left in despair, she is not aware of the enemy forces which threaten her very life.
The Zion Chronicles - Book 3
The Return To Zion
Their enemies vowed to strangle the ancient city, but there were those who remembered the promise to Israel ...
The Gates of Zion and its sequel, A Daughter of Zion, graphically portrayed the courage and hope of the Jewish people streaming into Israel after the Holocaust. The drama of history and the heart-stopping life-and-death struggle of a nation are captured by bestselling author Bodie Thoene in the lives of the people who live on these pages.
The Return to Zion opens during the final month of British occupation in Palestine. With Moshe the target of a dangerous conspiracy and Rachel imprisoned behind the walls of the Old City, David and Ellie marshall efforts in the last-ditch attempts of the Jewish Agency to arm its people against the onslaught that surely will come on the day the British forces leave Palestine.
The Zion Chronicles - Book 4
A Light In Zion
Would the eve of Passover hold another miracle for the nation's survival?
A Light in Zion opens in April 1948, only six weeks before the final evacuation of the British from Israel. The dream for the rebirth of the Jewish Nation now appears doomed to extinction. The British have almost totally withdrawn from any interference between the battles of the nearly unarmed Jews and the Arab soldiers of Haj Amin Husseini.
The eve of Passover finds the Jewish sector of Jerusalem being starved into submission by an Arab siege. While Moshe and his Jewish troops risk their lives to open the Arab-held pass of Bab el Wad for a food convoy to save their people, David and Ellie search the Mediterranean for a freighter loaded with weapons for the Muslim Jihad and the bands of Arab soldiers who still vow to drive the Jews into the sea. And Rachel's mother-heart yearns over her fever-ravaged infant.
The Zion Chronicles - Book 5
The Key To Zion
With five nations poised to attack and armed Palestinians within, what chance does the day for Jewish statehood hold?
The Key to Zion opens with the British in the final stages of their military evacuation from Palestine. Haj Amin Jusseini and the Arab Palestinians have been impatiently awaiting this day, but their power has gradually eroded. Five Mid-Eastern nations have gathered around the tiny country to divide it up for themselves, totally ignoring the interests of the Palestinians in their greedy conspiracy to destroy the Jews.
While the Jewish Haganah frantically trains its pilots in fighter planes - which they, ironically, have bought from Germany - Moshe is still attempting to supply the Old City of Jerusalem with food. Even before statehood is declared on May 14, 1948, full-scale fighting breaks out between the Arabs and Jews with no intervention from the British.
A. D. Chronicles - Book 1
First Light
Spiritual and political darkness shroud the world's holiest and most turbulent city. Ruled by Rome and manipulated by religious rulers with only selfish interests in mind, the people of Jerusalem wonder if their Deliverer will ever come
Susanna and Manaen desperately search for home and meaning - in a world where their love is forbidden. Others pray and wait for light, the True Light of Messiah, to dawn. Peniel the beggar, Marcus the Roman centurion, Zadok the Chief Shepherd of Israel, and his three adopted orphan boys - all long for a vision of hope.
Now a healer named Yeshua walks the streets of Jerusalem. Is He the true Messiah or only another imposter, like so many before Him?
A. D. Chronicles - Book 2
Second Touch
The lepers in the Valley of Mak'ob hear the rumors that a miracle healer is now walking the earth. Could this be the hope they have waited an eternity for? The healing they have longed for? While Lily, Cantor, and Rabbi Ahava courageously comfort they dying in the Valley, the leper Jekuthiel risks home and family, even when his baby is about to be born, to find out if the rumors are true.
In these somber, deceitful days, Peniel, the once-blind beggar, makes a gut-wrenching decision. Will it cut him off from the Light? Zadok refuses to back down from his claims about Messiah. And Pharisee Simon ben Zeraim hides a devastating secret.
During these dark and dangerous times, the people long for the transforming touch of the Messiah.
A. D. Chronicles - Book 3
Third Watch
From the wilderness of Sinai in the south to Mount Hermon in the north, the question of Yeshua of Nazareth's identity resounds across the ancient land of Israel. Even evil waits to hear the answer. It is in the very air, the storm, and the sea.
Zahav, the lonely, unmarried daughter of an old rabbi, waits for the promised Messiah ... waits for love. Her heart is drawn toward Alexander and his young son, who is ravaged by evil forces. But can their forbidden love endure the trials that will face them?
Susanna and Manaen struggle as they begin their life together. Bitter over an evil act of violence that left him blind, Manaen cannot accept a life of darkness. Will their relationship survive the overwhelming odds? Can the truth about Yeshua defeat the evil that lurks in the land?
A. D. Chronicles - Book 4
Fourth Dawn
No one is secure in Judea. Plots are hatched, poisonings contrived, and the least innuendo can bring torture or execution. As the people long for the true heir of King David to take the throne, Herod determines to hold on to his kingdom ... no matter the price.
As young Mary of Nazareth tends a cow in her parents'barn, she receives an unusual visitor. What he tells her will change everything about her life ... and impact all those in Judea and beyond for eternity! Yet will Yosef, her betrothed, believe her? Or will she lose the one she loves?
Onias the Tutor puzzles over the ancient prophecies in secret. If anyone discovers what he knows, not only he, but his beloved wife and child, will be in imminent peril. Now signs are appearing in the heavens. But what do they mean?
A. D. Chronicles - Book 5
Fifth Seal
Gossip swirls around the newlyweds Mary and Yosef. It is far too soon for her womb to carry the growing baby, neighbors say. Yet too much is at stake for Yosef to reveal the truth. He vows to protect Mary and the baby with his life, but how can he protect her heart from the barbs of betrayal?
As beloved prophetess Hannah boldly foretells the coming of Israel’s true King, King Herod plots her doom . . . and that of anyone else he believes challenges his throne. When a dying slave stumbles into Beth-lehem on a stormy night, shepherd Zadok and his wife, Rachel, wonder, Is her arrival guided by God or a trap set by the paranoid Herod?
As Mary and Yosef set out on a perilous journey to Jerusalem, astronomer Melchior sees unusual activity in the stars. He’s convinced something important will happen soon in Israel . . . and it will impact the world for all eternity.
A. D. Chronicles - Book 6
Sixth Covenant
Beth-lehem, six miles from Jerusalem, is comprised of simple folks, who spend their days tending sheep, newborn lambs, and their own families. Among them—as guests of Zadok, Rachel, and their three little boys—are Mary, Yosef, and baby Yeshua, whose birth was announced by a miraculous conjunction of the stars and a throng of angels in the sheep fields.
Convinced by their study of the stars and prophecies that the long-awaited Messiah has been born, foreigners travel toward Jerusalem. Surely the capital city of the Jews will hold the answer to the mystery they have sought for months.
Tortured by nightmares that someone is coming to take over his kingdom, King Herod grows more paranoid. He gives an order to his soldiers—one more devastating and evil than anyone could imagine. That very night soldiers and their mounts thunder toward Beth-lehem, the village of the sacrificial lambs. . . .
A. D. Chronicles - Book 7
Seventh Day
Eve, the widow of Absalom the Scribe, has one thing to live for — her only son, Abel. She is resigned to her own suffering but grieves over Abel’s every rasping breath. She’s heard of a great Healer who walks the earth, doing miracles. Could the rumors be true? What if she could reach Him? Would there be a miracle for Abel . . . if he could survive the arduous journey?
While riffling through the archives under the Temple Mount, religious leader Ra’nabel ben Dives discovers startling information about a child who escaped the slaughter of Herod the Great’s soldiers. If King Herod Antipas and High Priest Caiaphas don’t know, ben Dives schemes, perhaps I can turn this news to my own advantage. . . .
Meanwhile, in Bethany, El’azar, a close friend of Yeshua’s, grows seriously ill. Miryam and Marta, his sisters, quickly send word to Yeshua, but Yeshua delays. Why does He not come? the sisters wonder. Does He not care?
A. D. Chronicles - Book 8
Eight Shepherd
Zachai, the chief tax collector of Jericho, is the most hated man in all of Judea. Outside the walls of his estate, he’s surrounded by four giant Nubian bodyguards. But at night he’s a prisoner of his aching heart. What would it be like to be loved, to have a family?
Shimona, a former leper from the Valley of Mak’ob, returns to her hometown of Jericho to proclaim that Yeshua has healed her. When no one believes her story, she is shunned and sent to live alone as the caretaker of a grove of sukomore fig trees. Month after month she holds on tightly to hope in the midst of her loneliness.
A former prince among the Nubian tribes, Salmon was betrayed and sold into slavery. Now one of the few treasures he has—his little daughter Marisha—is dying. Salmon has heard stories of Yeshua’s miracles. But would the Great Shepherd have mercy on a sheep that’s outside Israel’s flock? Each day Marisha grows weaker. . . .
A. D. Chronicles - Book 9
Ninth Witness
The census riots are barely past. Bands of Zealots roam the canyons. Anguished shrieks echo against the hillsides of Nazareth as Rome crushes the last Jewish resistance. Herod the Butcher King is dead, but Antipas, his cruel son, now reigns in the Galil. As the Jews remember their deliverance from the evil Haman, they wonder, "Where is there a Mordechai for this age? Where an Esther?"
Nine-year-old Jude and six-year-old Kerah watch as their father, the hero of the Galil, hangs on a Roman cross. His dying whisper to Jude, "Take your sister to Jerusalem."
Zachariah, Elisheba, and young Yochanan watch compelling signs in the heavens and ponder what they could mean. Could a day of justice be coming for the Jews?
Aged scholar Rabbi Mazzar travels with his three Yeshiva students to Jerusalem for Passover and their bar mitzvahs. He has high hopes for twelve-year-old Yeshua, who seems to study people as well as Torah. Could such a one make a great rabbi or be the founder of something even more enduring?
A. D. Chronicles - Book 10
Tenth Stone
Yod, a young girl born in the Valley of Mak’ob, where lepers live out the end of their days, is heartbeats away from eternity in the Dying Cave. 30 . . . 29 . . . 28 . . . Stories abound about Yeshua of Nazareth, the miracle-worker. Dare she hope for a miracle—just for her? 27 . . . 26 . . . 25 .
Twenty-two-year-old Daniel, son of Melchior and Esther of Ecbatana, lives out his days in rebellion and a drunken stupor, a great embarrassment to his father and his older brother, Joshua. Life is boring beyond belief, Daniel thinks. But everything about his life is about to change. . . .
Melchior the Magus, former court astronomer to King Phraates of Parthia, has been a wealthy merchant, known for his integrity. He and his wife recall the stars that led them to Beth-lehem, to the birthplace of the long-awaited Messiah. It has now been over thirty years since that day, Melchior thinks. He again ponders the signs in the heavens. Perhaps the time of the young Messiah’s work on earth has now come to fulfillment.
Could Yeshua of Nazareth indeed be that young child, now grown up and working miracles? And could any miracle save Melchior’s son Daniel?
The Thoene books can be purchased through numerous websites.
Here are two that I've used where you can purchase new or used books:
