Take This Cup by Bodie and Brock Thoene

From the publisher:

Though there have been many stories about the Cup of Christ, the Holy Grail, after the Last Supper, this is the first imaginative account of the Cup’s previous history and significance. Nehemiah, the young son of a Jewish woman, a weaver from Jerusalem, is born and raised among the Jews who didn’t return to Jerusalem from the Exile. Educated by Rabbi Kagba, one of the magi present at Jesus’ birth thirty years earlier, Nehemiah grows up with the expectation of a soon-coming Messiah. Could the Yeshua of Nazareth, who is walking the earth, reportedly doing miracles, be that Messiah?

When young Nehemiah must travel the long caravan road to Jerusalem, he is charged with an unusual mission—to carry a mysterious object back to the holy city of Jerusalem . . . an object whose reappearance heralds the Messiah’s arrival.

Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem just as the final events of Jesus’ earthly ministry are coming to a climax: the Feast of Dedication, the Triumphal Entry, the last cleansing of the Temple, and culminating at the Last Supper in the Upper Room. Only Nehemiah understands the true sacrifice that is to come as he makes the cup worthy of his Savior.

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The Thoenes are masters of history and fiction woven together.  Their Biblical fiction is filled with cultural and historical depth that will help the reader to appreciate and be drawn into the Biblical story.

This is the second book in the Jerusalem Chronicles.  Readers will not be confused if they read this as a stand-alone book, but they will appreciate it more if the do read the first one in this series as well as the A.D. Chronicle series.  

I have read numerous books by the Thoenes, so sometimes I just expect them to be historical and spiritually deep--but as I read this one I was surprised to find myself very touched.  

Readers will be drawn into the lives of Nehemiah and his family.  There is danger, risk, and love that will tug on the readers heart.  This will take them into the time period of Jesus and his last weeks on earth before His crucifixion.  Many Christians just numb to the idea of Jesus dying on the cross, but this made me ache anew at the idea of His sacrifice for me.  I am sure other readers will be touched as well.

There are certain Biblical things that I do not agree with, but if the reader spends time reading this book, and then comparing it with the Bible I believe it will be a great benefit to them.  

I received this book free from BookLookBloggers in exchange for my honest review.