The Scribe

A novel dramatizes the life of the Apostle Luke and the days of Jesus’ ministry.

Luke is born to Cesari Ciccone, a Roman senator, in a fit of tragedy. Luke’s mother, Augusta, dies in childbirth, a terrible loss for the family. A seer prophesies that Luke will grow up to be a great scribe, one who will write a historically significant chronicle of the birth and evolution of Christianity. This prediction concerns Cesari given the persecution that Christians suffer at the hands of Romans. But, moved by the death of his mother, Luke decides to become a physician, thinking this is his best opportunity to help humankind. With a combination of both literary invention and impressively rigorous historical research, Mullen tracks the spiritual development of Luke and his eventual fulfillment of his destiny to pen a new Gospel, one that would change the world. As the seer foresees, “People will be enthusiastic and enthralled by a story of a baby king born to a virgin mother of Galilee and her husband Joseph, a simple carpenter. They will see the weight of the event from the importance shown by the three wise men: and by others of important standing in the community. And lastly, they will empathize with the death of the man, and they will rejoice with his Resurrection.” In this ambitious novel, the author ably constructs the time and the lives of the story’s principal figures, including Jesus, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul, and also furnishes a meticulously authentic account of the era’s political turmoil with a particular emphasis on the plights of early Christians. A refreshingly full portrayal of Luke emerges, one that highlights his life as a man and not merely a theological icon. But the book lacks an immersive literary quality—the writing is static and the story’s pace is too slow.

A historically captivating but artistically uneven tale about Luke.