Description

“You will weave a beautiful mantle. You will weave it from the strands of your life. When the babe comes forth, you will wrap him in this mantle. It will be as though you had enclosed him within yourself.”

Forbidden to follow Christ on his final journey, Miri of Bethany fits her loom with strips cut from a widow’s garments. Through these dark lines she weaves threads from the Christ-child’s swaddling clothes, hair from the Baptizer’s braids, fishnet ropes and golden ribbons.

Miri later transcribes the memories in the mantle onto twenty-four scrolls – but will those who control the powerful young church allow a woman’s authority over the story of Christ? Forced to live in exile with the man who stole her manuscript and broke her heart, Miri accepts one final opportunity to share her Gospel. Night after night, Miri’s story unfurls as delicately as the tendrils of smoke rising from their campfire.

THE PROPHET’S MANTLE draws on the real-life mystery of Q, the missing source document for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Early Christian leaders disseminated and preserved these three Gospels. What happened to the original? THE PROPHET’S MANTLE resurrects the saga of the stolen Gospel and the people who lived it.

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