Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year's excerpt from "The Ephesus Scroll"

St. Petersburg – January, AD 2006

It was the opening seconds of New Years Day.  Dima, Natasha and Marina were standing out in the cold, their winter coats wrapped tightly around their bodies, hats pulled down warmly over their ears, as a little way off Yevgeny stooped over to light the fuse of some fireworks.  He was apparently successful, for he came jogging over to them, before quickly turning around to watch.  All around them the sound of Russians ushering in the New Year could be seen and heard.  And then, their own contribution was added to the light and noise: one after the other, more than a dozen brilliant balls of fire were shot high into the air above them before exploding into a million pieces of shimmering light accompanied by an electrifying and almost deafening sizzle.  The last few seemed to speed up and the climax came as three went off almost simultaneously.
Dima realised he had been shouting “Hoorah!” as each firework had exploded, and suddenly he felt a little embarrassed.  But no one seemed to have noticed.  In fact, now he came to think about it, they had all been doing the same thing.  Turning to Natasha, he gave her a big hug and a kiss.  Then, he gave Marina and Yevgeny a hug and the traditional New Year greeting: “S Novym godom!
With a shiver, Natasha exclaimed, “That’s enough.  Let’s get inside!”
Everyone agreed.  The temperature was around minus fifteen – not horribly cold, but cold enough.  With the occasional flash of firework-light illuminating the path, they made their way across the snowy area in front of Dima & Natasha’s building.  Within a few minutes they were removing their coats inside their apartment, ready to drink something to warm themselves up again.
Once everyone had a cup of tea or coffee made to their exacting specifications, Yevgeny posed a question to everyone: “What are your plans for this new year?”
There was a brief silence as everyone started thinking of something deep and profound to say.  From outside could be heard the muffled bangs as the impromptu and unofficial fireworks display continued.
Marina was first.
“I am looking forward to the birth of our first child,” she said, simply.
This was news; Natasha leapt up, shrieking excitedly, to give Marina a special hug, and Dima solemnly shook Yevgeny’s hand.
“Congratulations,” he said to Yevgeny.
“Thanks,” he replied.  “I, too, am looking forward to that occasion.  It will bring many changes to us as a couple, but nothing we cannot face with God’s help and presence.  It is also hard to separate a man from his work, so I am also looking forward to seeing what God will do in our church.  We have much to be thankful for, but still many challenges to face.”
Natasha was back in her seat by this time.  “Well, we are not expecting any additions to our family just yet,” she said, looking sideways at Dima with a smile.  Then she looked rather serious.  “Actually, I have been thinking about my parents recently.  My father is drinking again, and my mother has basically kicked him out.  They really need to become Christians, but I just can’t see it happening, and I don’t know what I can do.  So I have been praying for them, and I want to visit them when I can.”  However, Natasha’s parents lived in a town a few days train-ride from St. Petersburg, so a visit was a serious undertaking, one that did not occur too frequently.
“We will also pray for them,” said Yevgeny, as Marina nodded beside him.  “And for you.”
It was now Dima’s turn to speak.
“You all know that I have become rather obsessed by the book of Revelation.”  There was some laughter.  “Well, I want to try and find a way of making the book more accessible to the church here in Russia.  I’m not sure if I will write a book, or start a web site, or what.  But I know that in the past, the church would really have benefited from having a proper understanding of Revelation.  And who knows if the church may need it sometime in the future.”
“Indeed,” said Yevgeny, heartily.  “And that reminds me!  I have a little Christmas present for you.”  He got up, went over to his satchel and pulled out a present wrapped in cheery Christmas paper.  “Here, I thought you might find this interesting.”
“Thanks,” replied Dima, taking the present.  He tore off the paper and found himself holding a book: The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.
“It’s a bit of a classic,” said Yevgeny.  “Hal Lindsay wrote this book in 1970, in which he predicted that the return of Jesus would happen within about 40 years after 1948.  As you may have noticed, Jesus didn’t return in 1988, so Hal Lindsey has revised his book quite a few times since.  What you are holding, though, is his first version, which makes for very interesting reading.”
“Wow,” said Dima, “How did you get hold of it?”
“Amazon.com,” replied Yevgeny with a shrug.
“Well, thanks again,” said Dima.  “I look forward to reading it.”
“And now,” said Yevgeny, solemnly, “let’s commit this year to God.”
They all bowed their heads as Yevgeny prayed.  All in all, it was a good way to start the year.

Monday, November 26, 2012

The "Author Photo" Shoot

Just for fun, here are some photos from the author photo shoot.  (Originally, this was supposed to be for my Facebook profile picture!)  I did the photos myself, using our camera's timer button, in our St. Pete apartment.  So I had to position the camera, press the button, rush back to the sofa and get positioned.  But it was even more difficult because I wanted to include our cat, Tiger.  Here are the outtakes:




Here's the one I eventually chose for Facebook:


But then, when it came to the author photo, I cropped out the cat and processed the result using Sagelight:


But I know (and now you do, too) that Tiger is sitting there right next to me!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Inspiration 3: Ephesus

Back in 2004 I was extremely fortunate to visit Ephesus.  It was an amazing experience, one that really brought home to me that the events described in the New Testament have a real historical context.

Curetes Street
(I imagined that Loukas' family lived somewhere on this street.)

A private residence on Curetes Street
(This could have been Loukas' house!)


Ruins near the Fountain of Pollio
(This is the sort of wall I imagined coming apart during an earthquake,
revealing the hiding place of the scroll to Dima's great-great-grandfather.)


Domitian's Temple
(Domitian gave Ephesus the right to build the first temple on Ephesus dedicated to a living emperor.
In return, the people erected a 7m-tall statue of Domitian in the temple.)

Domitian's Statue
(The rest was made of wood and has not been preserved.)

Marble Street
(The Apostle Paul would have walked on these flagstones!)

The Great Theatre
(This was where the people of Ephesus chanted 'Artemis of the Ephesians'.)

Not long after this visit, I started writing The Ephesus Scroll.  In fact, the first version of the opening was set in the present, with Dima and Natasha visiting as tourists.  Much of that version is based quite heavily on my visit to Ephesus - although we didn't experience an earthquake or find a scroll of the book of Revelation!  (You can read that version here.)

Monday, November 19, 2012

Two Earlier Works

One of the things that struck me about studying at a Bible college was that there are a lot of truly excellent books and articles that are really helpful for understanding the Bible better.  However, not many people find them, and if they do, some can be difficult to read.  (One author that always made me laugh would have untranslated Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and German quotations!)

So when I came across a book (Gerald Eddie Gerbrandt's Kingship According To The Deuteronomistic History) and an article (Sam Dragga's “In The Shadow Of The Judges: The Failure Of Saul” in Journal For The Study Of The Old Testament 38) that really helped explain what was happening in the book of 1 Samuel, I thought I should do something about it.  I decided to write a play that would follow the text of 1 Samuel but would also include the conclusions of these other scholarly works.  The end result was Saul: First King of Israel (available here).


But this wasn't the first time I tried to intersect theology and the arts.  Back in 1996 I was asked to write a musical based on the book of Esther.  It took a while, but in July/August 1998 Lilydale Baptist performed Esther over 4 spectacular nights.  A recording from one of those nights is now available (for free download) from NoiseTrade (here).  I hope you will check it out!


Friday, November 9, 2012

An Interview (and a Giveaway!)

I thought it was worth posting a link to an interview I did recently on a friend's writing blog.  Check it out here: http://100firstdrafts.blogspot.com/2012/11/book-lauch-ephesus-scroll-by-ben.html

To give you an idea of the content, here were the questions I was asked:
1. What made you decide to dedicate hours and hours of your life to sitting behind a screen and touching little buttons?
2. Describe your writing history until this point in 25 words or less.
3. What is your writing style: plot it all out or discovery writing? one draft or many? Little bits everyday or mammoth writing sessions?
4. Best piece of writing advice you have ever received or given.
5. Inspiration behind this novel?
6. Do you have a favourite part of this novel?
7. While you were writing this novel, you were working full time with a wife and two daughters and living in a foreign country: did you develop any good techniques for finding time, or is it always hard?
8. What are the top tips you have learned about self-publishing?
9. Any new projects on the horizons?
10. Mystery questions: answer any question you feel I should have asked :D (and I chose "Since marketing is the big problem with self-publishing, how can people help a struggling author out?")

And there is a giveaway, too.  So check it out!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Inspiration 2: G.B. Caird's Commentary


G.B. Caird's The Revelation Of Saint John would have to be my favourite commentary of any book of the Bible (Gordon Fee's The First Epistle to the Corinthians would be a close second!)  Caird does something entirely unexpected in this commentary: he manages to make sense of a complex and controversial book and he does it in a surprisingly non-scholarly way.  Many (most?) commentaries are difficult to read; you only delve into one when you have to.  You don't generally sit down with one of an evening as part of your 'reading for relaxation' regime.  Not so with Caird's little classic!  This commentary is quite readable, almost conversational in style.  You can just read it through, from cover to cover, like a novel.  And like a novel, the story he brings out from the pages of the book of Revelation is really quite gripping.

Caird comes at the text from the perspective of what did it mean for the people who first read it.  To that end he places the book firmly within its historical context: sometime during the last decade of the first century, at a time when Christians were experiencing increasing persecution from the civil authorities.  The other major interpretive tool Caird brings to the text is an awareness that much of the imagery used in Revelation comes from the Old Testament.  Much of the time, we can have a good idea about what is going on in the text by seeing how the original author is using stock imagery from various OT prophetic books, but applying them to a new situation.

I first read this commentary during my years in Bible college.  There were a couple of events that led me to want to write The Ephesus Scroll (see here for more details).  However, once I had the idea, one of the central components was that the novel would be a disguised commentary of the book of Revelation, much like a rather well-known series.  But in my case, the commentary that would be being disguised would be Caird's.  So in much of the novel, I am paraphrasing Caird to a greater or lesser extent.  It is my hope that if the reader cares to explore this particular way of approaching the book of Revelation they will start with Caird's commentary.  I don't think they will be disappointed.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Inspiration 1: Cryptonomicon



Cryptonomicon, the epic historical, cypherpunk novel by Neal Stephenson, is my favourite novel of all time.  I had loved Snow Crash, Stephenson's break-through cyberpunk novel, but then I had got a little bogged down in The Diamond Age, its follow-up.  I bought Cryptonomicon without question but was a little unsure what to expect.

What I soon became totally immersed in was a gripping historical / technological novel with two timelines.  One timeline concerns code-breaking efforts during World War 2; the other timeline concerns the establishment of a data-haven during the late 1990's.  The action jumps back and forth between these two timelines.  The two timelines are also connected in that some of the characters in the later timeline are descendants of some of the characters in the first timeline.  Then throw in a number of real-world characters for some brilliantly funny cameos.  I found the novel extremely funny in places.  There are some highly amusing incidents, many involving rather technical details, scattered throughout the novel.  In fact, there was usually some description or phrase on every page that made me smile, chuckle or laugh out loud.  At the same time, there are a number of nasty, quite upsetting scenes - World War 2 features in one timeline, remember - giving the book a very serious feel, too.

So how did this novel inspire my own novel, The Ephesus Scroll?

There are two central questions that face us when we examine any book of the Bible.  Firstly, what did it mean for the original readers (or hearers)?  And secondly, what does it mean for us, today?  I firmly believe that we cannot correctly apply a specific book or passage to ourselves unless we first understand what it meant for the original readers.  This is especially true of the book of Revelation.  One of my personal presuppositions about the book of Revelation is that the people who first read this book would have understood what it meant and that it applied to them in their historical situation.  How it might apply to us is a secondary issue.

I wanted to examine possible answers to these two questions (what it meant for the original readers and what it means for us) in the form of a novel.  I decided that the use of two timelines was one way to do this.  So the first timeline in The Ephesus Scroll, and the most important one, is the one set in Asia Minor towards the end of the first-century AD.  In this timeline, you will read about Loukas as he receives the scroll of the book of Revelation from John on Patmos and then takes the scroll to read in the seven churches named in chapters 2 and 3.  The significance of the scroll is then seen in its original historical context, against the backdrop of state-enforced emperor worship.  The second timeline is the modern-day one, set in St. Petersburg, Russia.  In this timeline, you will read about Dima and Natasha who come across an ancient scroll and learn that it originally came from Ephesus, Turkey.  The significance of the book of Revelation for us, today, can then be discussed, against the backdrop of a recent history of state persecution of Christians.

So that's how Cryptonomicon inspired my novel.  In my next post, I will discuss my second inspiration: G.B. Caird's brilliant commentary of the book of Revelation...

Friday, October 26, 2012

Book Description

In 93 AD, Loukas, the son of a wealthy Christian trader, is entrusted with a scroll to read in seven churches in Asia Minor. However, the scroll sparks rebellion wherever he goes and the Roman authorities attempt to track him down. But all Loukas wants to do is complete his mission and get back to Ephesus and his fiancée, Iounia.

In 2005 AD, Dima and Natasha, a young Russian couple from St. Petersburg, come across a stone box with a scroll inside, apparently found in Ephesus by Dima’s great-great-grandfather. The scroll is a complete – and early – copy of the book of Revelation. How did this scroll come to be found in Russia? And has it come to light at this very time for a reason?

The Ephesus Scroll is a novel that attempts to answer two questions. What did the book of Revelation mean to the people who first heard it? And what does it mean for us today? 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Introducing "The Ephesus Scroll"

Welcome to The Ephesus Scroll blog, a place for information about The Ephesus Scroll, a novel by Ben Chenoweth.  This novel is available for purchase and download from Smashwords.  Click here for the book's Smashwords page.  It is also available on Amazon.  Click here for the book's Amazon page.  The ebook version is priced at US$4.99.

As of June 2013 (and while stocks last) it also comes in printed form.  To order, please email ephesus.scroll at gmail.com with your name, address and how many copies you would like and I will send you details about how to pay.  (It will be through PayPal, in case you were wondering.)  And if you want the author to sign it, just ask; that will not cost anything extra!  (The following prices are in Australian dollars.)  The printed version costs $12 per copy.  For postage in Australia, add $4.  For international postings, add
$10 for New Zealand, $12 for Asia/Pacific, and $16 for UK / Europe / US.

The novel was inspired by a visit to Ephesus in 2004. There are two timelines and the action cuts back and forth between them, like Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". The first timeline is set in 93 AD, during the reign of Domitian. The second is set in the recent present (2005-6), mostly in St. Petersburg, Russia. Having two timelines is my way of answering two important questions about the book of Revelation: what did it mean for the people who first heard it, and what does it mean for us today?