A Controversial Subject, A Controversial Book by Latayne C. Scott

A Controversial Subject, A Controversial Book

It’s a secret that’s been hidden for ages: A woman wrote a significant section of the Bible?

For nearly two thousand years, the author of one of the books of the Bible has been a mystery, but in the last two centuries scholars have speculated that a woman wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews – one of the richest, most exotic segments of Scripture.

However, no one has written a novel about its author as Priscilla, often mentioned in Paul’s writings, whom the scholars identify as the most likely candidate.

In the tradition of Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, Priscilla, who is nearing the end of her life, describes her doubts and struggles with the “Holy Breath” who intruded into her life with the complex and mystic words and images that became the book of Hebrews.

This novel began percolating in my mind when I first read the “theory” that a woman may have written the Epistle to the Hebrews. One day I saw in my mind a scene of a Roman woman walking behind a cart, on her way back from a place where Christians were martyred. I began writing her story.

Many publishers (even those who had published my previous books) passed on this story because they thought it was too controversial. But Trinity Southwest University Press said they would gladly publish it, because they trusted me and the research that undergirds this book.

The historical character Priscilla came alive to me as I wrote:  a classically-trained, patrician Roman woman who yielded first to the Jesus she heard about, and then later to the Holy Breath who inspired her to write the book of Hebrews.

One of the greatest compliments I’ve gotten from a reader came from fellow author Cynthia Ruchti – well known to your readers, I am sure.  She related to me about how she was reading the end of my book. “I had stopped for lunch at a sushi restaurant,” she wrote me, “and sat quietly sipping my tea while reading… so close to finishing. But I started crying so hard that I had to leave the restaurant and go sit in my car to finish reading!”

In a way, I am happy I made people cry with this book. But I’m even more happy at the number of people who said it strengthened their faith; and made them more grateful for the Christians of the first century who paradoxically lived in the “most favored generation” (who’d been alive when Jesus was) and yet suffered so greatly.

Most of those Christians were nameless, like the author of the book of Hebrews; but I am honored to have given that woman, that writer, a name and a story.

Dr.  Latayne C. Scott (Distinguished Christian Service Award, Pepperdine University) writes controversial books. Her award-winning and critically-acclaimed novel, A Conspiracy of Breath, is based on the scholarly theory that a woman wrote part of the Bible. Her first book, The Mormon Mirage--also controversial-- has stayed in print almost continuously for almost 40 years. She has two dozen other published books.

One notable recent book is about the discovery of the ancient Biblical city of Sodom (Discovering the City of Sodom.) Her first novel is a murder mystery revolving around a code developed by the early Mormon church. Both are.... controversial.

She's also won a national award for humor. Her kids say she's not so funny, but she just holds up the prize check.

Latayne blogs at Latayne.com. She’s @Latayne on Twitter, and Author Latayne C Scott on Facebook.

Book title: A Conspiracy of Breath, TSU Press.

Book description:  Silver Medal Winner, Readers' Favorite Book Awards; Finalist, International Book Awards. In a richly-textured, controversial and provocative literary work, award-winning author Latayne C. Scott examines: What would it have been like to be a woman, a Gentile, and someone onto whom the Holy Breath moved - to produce what became the mysterious Epistle to the Hebrews in the Bible?

"This book changed me, deepened my love for The Breath, and swelled my appreciation for those who sacrificed so much to ensure people like me...could turn the parchment pages and read Truth for ourselves. I didn't want to leave this story and fear Latayne has spoiled me as a reader. That's how thoroughly it captivated my heart and rearranged my definition of elegant and life-altering storytelling." Cynthia Ruchti, Golden Scroll-winning author of A Fragile Hope and Song of Silence.

"If I've ever read more exquisite writing than A Conspiracy of Breath I don't know what it would be. Latayne's amazing novel inserts the reader into the ancient world of Rome and Corinth and Jerusalem and lets her feel what it would have been to live at the time of Paul and Timothy, Aquilla and Priscilla, and Latayne's unforgettable character, Cordelia--as an outlaw believer in the Name. The revelation of the book of Hebrews as received by Priscilla is profound, such as I've never experienced it before. This story completely captures the reader. Truly, truly unforgettable." Sharon K. Souza, author of The Color of Sorrow Isn't Blue and What We Don't Know.