The Parchment

By Gerald T. McLaughlin

It is A.D. 70, and Evardus, a wine merchant from Gaul, has encountered a dying rabbi on a road outside of Jerusalem. With his final breaths, the old man urgently tells Evardus that Jewish priests have... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584200308
• ISBN13: 9781584200307
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Lindisfarne Books
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A riveting historical fiction

The Parchment is a fascinating page-turner and given the current Pope's condition, could turn out to be a timely story, as well.

A Must Read!!!

I read the Parchment from cover to cover not wanting to put it down. The book is fantastic. It takes historical novels to heights which few authors can reach.

A GrippingTale

The Parchment is a first novel by noted legal scholar and law dean, Gerald T. McLaughlin, and was written during the long and lingering battle with breast cancer fought by his beloved late wife, largely before The DaVinci Code burst onto the scene. It was not published until December 2004, and it surpasses The DaVinci Code on virtually all literary levels. The book tells a gripping tale, one that is rooted in human nature, world history, and even geopolitics, not in riddles. Its characters are finely drawn, believable, and hold your interest, even though they span centuries and cultures - no (un)willing suspension of disbelief is required. The plot works complicated analogies, as well as illuminating parallels, through diverse institutions, which include the Knights Templar, the Mafia, the Vatican, the Italian Government, the Presidency, the French aristocracy, and Arab-Israeli intrigue in the Middle East. Through it all, the author's deep and abiding affection and respect for the Church, which, as one character puts it, survives, is palpable and endearing. The action begins when two scholars working in the Vatican Library come upon a parchment showing first-century census records indicating that Jesus of Nazareth was married to Mary of Magdalene and that they had two children, David and Tamar. The parchment is carbon-dated and validated, after being surreptitiously removed from the library. We are then taken on a magical journey that goes back to first-century Palestine, covers the Crusades, and gives us a glimpse of machinations at the Vatican - even a papal consistory. Throughout it all, the author's imagination is remarkable, even for (especially for!) a New Yorker trained in classics at Fordham. Also, I would never have thought that a lawyer would have been able to spin such a compelling yarn having basically nothing to do with the stuff of lawyering, (like courtrooms, investigations, juries and the like), as well as nothing to do with law school (like the law professor entrancing his adoring students and so forth), but this novel really takes us back to a distant world, as well as across the ocean to another land, and it is well worth the trip.

A Must Read

This book is a literate and far more interesting DaVinci Code. It is written by a classics scholar and it shows. The plot is not only exciting--making this a fast read--but it is full of rich historical detail that is not only fascinating and illuminating but that brings the story to life. The story spans centuries and the author skillfully jumps back and forth in time with ease. Without giving too much away, the story on one level concerns an ancient Jewish parchment--a census scroll--that appears to reveal that Jesus was married and had descendants. On a far more interesting level, the story deals with the way in which the Church, or more particularly two popes separated in time by centuries, dealt with the parchment and the moral dilemmas and the threats that it posed. Along the way, we meet Arab extremists, knights templar, ruthless kings and captive pontiffs, popes with Alzheimers, honest and ambitious cardinals and many others. You will thoroughly enjoy this book and you will be enriched by it.

The Parchment

'The Parchment' creates all the suspense and powerful motivation to read it to its conclusion, as did 'The Davinci Code'. The novel is more than just a new mystery, but is also factual even though the author has taken literary license with some of the facts. Much can be learned by this writing, as well as entertained, that will leave you with questions about where the truth really is. I highly recommend to all.