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"An outstanding historical novel.”—New York Times
“This novel makes real . . . the whole world of the New Testament.”—Chicago Tribune
“His theme is presented with an assurance and sweetness that is refreshing
in a great novel.”—Christian Science Monitor
- Sales Rank: #447906 in Books
- Published on: 2006-04-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.00" h x 2.13" w x 5.00" l, 1.43 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 840 pages
From the Back Cover
"An outstanding historical novel.”—New York Times
“This novel makes real . . . the whole world of the New Testament.”—Chicago Tribune
“His theme is presented with an assurance and sweetness that is refreshing
in a great novel.”—Christian Science Monitor
The colorful, passionate world of early Christianity comes to vivid life in this story of Basil of Antioch. Basil, a sensitive artisan, is purchased from slavery and commissioned to create a decorative casing for the Chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper. Basil travels to Jerusalem, Greece, and Rome, meets the apostles, braves the perils of persecution, and finally makes a fateful choice that allows him to “see” Jesus. The dramatic plot, compelling characters, and spiritual depth of The Silver Chalice made it one of the most popular historical novels of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Thomas B. Costain (1885–1965) turned to novel-writing in middle age after a distinguished career as a magazine and book editor in New York. His historical novels, which were marked by meticulous research and rousing action, were best sellers in the mid-twentieth century. His most popular works were The Black Rose (1945) and The Silver Chalice (1952).
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Peggy Noonan
Fifty years apart, two novels, each concerned with the history of early Christianity, led the best-sellers list for not just weeks or months—but years.
What a difference a half century makes. The more recent top best seller is, of course, The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003. It offers exotic conspiracy theories, colorful if unfounded speculation on church history, and an attempt to discredit the Gospels while claiming to reveal the real lowdown on Christianity’s origins.
But in 1952 and 1953, the reading public was offered a very different take on the early Christians. A richly detailed novel fleshed out that early period of Christian history and sought to bring it to life: The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain.
The Silver Chalice, the story of early Christianity as told through the eyes and experience of Basil, a former slave, was the best-selling fiction book in the United States in 1952 and the second most popular novel in 1953. What bested The Silver Chalice in that second year? The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, the story of the impact of Jesus’ garment on the Roman soldier who won it at the crucifixion, another thick read about early Christianity.
The times have indeed changed, which says much about our public faith, our interests, and even our cynicism. Certainly it says a great deal about the judgment of our nation’s modern publishing establishment. Today, if they were handed a lengthy manuscript that told a riveting and respectful story of early Christians, most houses would get the icks. At best, they’d relegate it to their small Christian-publishing arms. At worst, and more likely, they would never read it and would simply respond, “It’s not for us.”
Lucky for us they never got their hands on the work of Thomas B. Costain.
Costain came to novel-writing late in life, after a long career in journalism and story-editing for film. Well into his fame as a novelist, he told interviewers that he always saw himself as “a reporter . . . in the sense that a reporter tries to be accurate and interesting.” And was he ever both accurate and interesting. His historical fiction was marked by such meticulous research, such reliable detail, that one suspects he may have written his series of highly popular novels to justify his time spent researching them. Costain might have spent his life puttering happily among stacks of dusty books if it hadn’t been for a powerful imagination in service of an ardent heart that wished to reveal the past. For all his academic reliability, he was hugely popular with the general public. (This popularity did not transfer to the filmed version of The Silver Chalice. The movie features a badly miscast Paul Newman in his screen debut. Newman was subsequently so abashed by his performance as Basil that years later, when the film was scheduled to be run every night for a week on a Los Angeles television station, he took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times that read “Paul Newman Apologizes Every Night This Week.” The broadcasts, of course, got stellar ratings, which is perhaps not what Newman—who had declared he would never again make a film wearing a “cocktail dress”—had hoped for.)
Though Paul Newman played Basil in the movie version of The Silver Chalice, it’s not necessary to picture Newman in this role—unless you really want to—in the reading of The Silver Chalice, for as he always does, Thomas Costain offers rich descriptions not only of people but of places and things. He succeeds in bringing us into the world of first-century Christianity, from Jerusalem to Rome and points in between.
The skillful novelist knows that quite often the best way to present an unfamiliar environment is through the eyes of an outsider. Costain’s outsider is Basil, sold into slavery as a young man. He is a skillful artisan, particularly with precious metals, who is called by rather mysterious figures to Jerusalem for a surprising purpose: to create a “chalice” which will hold the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper. Basil is not a believer and does not immediately understand his commission. The apostle Luke brings Basil to Jerusalem for this purpose, and to the home of Joseph of Arimathea, who would fund the project. Part of the tale involves protecting the cup from the hardy enemies of Christianity.
The chalice was not to be randomly decorated. Basil realized that it should portray the scene of the Last Supper, with the faces of Jesus and his twelve apostles carefully crafted into silver metalwork. But how to see those faces?
Through this challenge Costain brings us into the world of early Christianity: Basil must create his images of Jesus and his twelve apostles ideally from life, or at least from the recollections of others. His quest moves the story on two levels, both physical and spiritual. In his search for the subjects and those who can tell him about them, Basil travels through the Mediterranean world, ending his journey in Rome. On a spiritual level, Basil’s work takes him more deeply into the Christian world, though with one obstacle: he cannot “see” Jesus in his mind’s eye in the same way he has been able to “see” the apostles. The inability puzzles and frustrates him, for every once in a while he seems to catch a fleeting glimpse.
Basil’s inability to see Jesus—and remember, in the Gospels, seeing and blindness are frequent metaphors for faith and the lack of it—is tied to a choice he has made, an attitude that seems to be unrelated to his quest to craft the silver Chalice. As we watch Basil grow in the realization of how the two are connected, however, we too are challenged to reflect on what elements in our lives prevent us from seeing.
Basil’s choice, his attitude, involves a quest for revenge against some who had injured him in the past. He wants to win back his birthright; he’d been cheated and hurt by an unscrupulous relative. A central tension in the book is between his human desire for revenge and his human desire to transcend hurt, to keep the desire for retribution from deforming his life. At the end there is a twist; he gets what he needs if not what he wants, as does the woman he eventually marries. He gives up the desire to equal the scales and inflict punishment. And after this, for the first time, he can “see.”
Basil’s story is but a thread in this tale. Costain brings us into a world in which Christianity, a small group that is still essentially a sect of Judaism, is in constant conflict with the powers around it, from the Sanhedrin to the forces of the Roman Empire. Costain’s eye for detail and observation brings this world to vivid life. There are a few anachronisms expressive of the values of the 1950s that might make the modern reader cringe as well as theological assessments of Jesus’ teachings that are more reflective of Norman Vincent Peale than of what the Gospels actually say. But these flaws are common in Biblical epics of this period, a time when Catholics were discouraged from reading Lloyd Douglas’s The Robe because of overly “naturalistic” descriptions of Jesus’ miracles.
One of the more intriguing conflicts in The Silver Chalice is with the magician Simon Magus, who is assisted by the slavegirl Helena, Basil’s old friend. Simon sets himself up as a competitor to Christianity and finds an audience drawn by his claims. Is this conflict historical?
Yes, no, and maybe. Simon Magus is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:9–24) as a magician, active in Samaria. He converts to Christianity and is baptized, but then, having observed the apostles’ powers of healing, offers to pay them for the power of the Spirit. He is, of course, rejected, leaving behind a tradition from which the word simony (the act of paying for religious observance or practice) is derived.
According to several nonbiblical works of early Christianity, Simon’s story does not end there. Costain uses many of these sources to flesh out the character of Simon Magus. Writing in the second century, St. Justin Martyr spoke of a Helena—believed to be a reincarnation of Helen of Troy—whom Simon redeems from slavery, as he does in The Silver Chalice, and who serves as Simon’s assistant. The Clementine writings—a group of stories with Christian characters dating from the late fourth and fifth centuries—posit a rivalry between Peter, Paul, and Simon. So does the apocryphal Acts of Peter, the source—with some emendations skeptical of the spiritual power these legends attribute to Simon—of Costain’s account of Simon’s death.
Using all sorts of resources—the New Testament, legends of the period, and the historical research available to him at the time—Costain constructed a rich world of faith and conflict in The Silver Chalice. In reading it, we find an entertaining window into the past, and, as in all good books, tensions and challenges that prompt us to look more closely at the present. How, indeed, do I “see” Christ? What value do I place on my faith? What would I sacrifice for it? Who are the Simon Maguses of today? What tricks do they tempt me with? Who are the Neros? What pleasures do they offer to seduce me away from Christ? What is the form of their rage and scorn when I refuse?
More basically, Costain asks us what a marriage is and means; what loyalty is; why some men prefer to take energy from anger and resentment, from a sense of being beset, and others take their energy from love and from something higher. All this is in The Silver Chalice. Perhaps the best way to read it is to make believe it is a wonderful television miniseries that takes its time in telling you its tale. It&...
Most helpful customer reviews
66 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
A gripping story of Love, Labor and Faith
By Rosie Cardo
This book was given to me over the summer by my mother who read it when she was young. From the moment I opened it, I couldn't put it down. The story of Basil's journey from Antioch to Jerusalem is one of great courage and faith. The fictional characters are well developed, and the historical ones are portrayed quite uniquely with qualities of real people one seldoms sees in Paul and Luke. This book has led me to read more of this genre, including Taylor Caldwell's "Dear and Glorious Physician". The awkward situation Basil finds himself in between Helena and Deborra is a believable situation, and it provides great insight into the mind of an intelligent, and proud young man. I recommend this book to those who are fascinated with history, the Christian religion and excellent writing.
44 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
On My List of Top 5 Books!
By writergal
I am a prolific reader and The Silver Chalice is one of my all time favorite books. It has suspense, history, greed, romance, love, longing, spirituality - the list of in depth emotions that the main character experiences is amazing. Basil is adopted by a wealthy family at a young age and upon his adopted father's death he is sold into slavery. The story of how he meets Luke, the great physician, Joseph of Arimathea, and many other bibical characters and their influence on his life is astounding. This is a must read book that you will want to read many times.
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Keep the Light Burning
By Lee Armstrong
Thomas B. Costain's "The Black Rose" enthralled me during the Christmas 2006 season. I found a copy of his 1952 novel "The Silver Chalice" @ a friends of the library sale and snapped it up with glee. While it sat on my reading table almost a year until Christmas 2007, it was well worth the wait.
Costain weaves his tale, set with a backdrop of the early Christian struggle in the years immediately after the crucifixion. Paul is a major character as is the physician Luke, who of course is credited with writing one of the Biblical gospels. I found it interesting that while The Urantia Book speaks of the Apostle John living until age 101 and dying in the heart of Africa, Costain's novel finds him hiding in caves near Rome.
The fictional story is gripping. Beginning in Antioch, it follows a boy named Ambrose who is sold by his father to a wealthy merchant Ignatius who adopts him and changes his name to Basil. The story follows Basil's artistic talents and temperament until his father's death. Rather than his adoptive son inheriting Ignatius' wealth, his greedy brother Linus disputes the adoption, bribes judge & witnesses, and sells Basil into slavery. Virtually imprisoned, Basic creates lovely jewelry until Luke steps in and pays off his owner and takes Basil to Jerusalem to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Christian merchant. Joseph who is elderly and failing wants Basil to create a frame that has the faces of the apostles to hold the silver chalice that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. Costain weaves in romance, as Basil is attracted to Joseph's granddaughter Deborah. The plot takes off from there. In 533 pages, Basil travels to Rome and is entangled in Nero's court.
I found the tale to spark many spiritual feelings in me, the love of Jesus, the appreciation of loyalty in the face of peril and the sweet sense of brotherhood between the early Christians. Costain concludes his novel with Luke envisioning modern times and how Jesus will be as important to later generations. The story is replete with many vivid characters, the giants who defend the camel train for example. I found myself not wanting to turn the light out at night and thinking the extra time reading was worth the experience the next day. This is another charming tale from Costain. I'm so glad I discovered it! Enjoy!
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