Historical Fiction

Elisha ben Abuyah, a talmudic rabbi, is so tortured by the presence of evil in the world that he repudiates Judaism, which demands unquestioned faith in God, and turns to Greek philosophy in search of a rational basis for faith. Elisha finds himself excommunicated by the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish council) and, unable to accept a God who cannot be confirmed by reason alone, drifts in his apostasy toward the day when he betrays the Jewish people to the Romans and watches as his former friends in the rabbinate are executed.

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