The Incarnation: Cleopatra’s Story of Jesus
About
In 1945, a Bedouin herder near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, unearthed a buried jar of banned manuscripts, hidden by monks sixteen centuries earlier. Inside was the Gospel of Thomas, a testament of Jesus the early Church had ruled heretical. The Incarnation:Cleopatra's Story of Jesus begins here, and asks a bolder question still: what if the true story of Christianity's founding wasn't only Lost, but deliberately reshaped?
This sweeping historical novel spans nearly seven centuries, opening in 48 BC Alexandria with a young Cleopatra VII and closing in 622 AD Yathrib, tracing a single incarnational bloodline through Ptolemy Caesar, the Apostle Paul, and Katharine of Alexandria, whose own dramatic trial forms one of the book's most powerful chapters. [Note: includes a dramatized account of religious martyrdom]
Along the way, the novel accounts individually for the origin of all twenty-seven books of the New Testament, placing each letter and gospel in the specific hand, time, and place that produced it, with dialogue drawn from the Book of Acts cross-referenced chapter and verse throughout. Ten original hand-drawn maps chart Paul's missionary journeys and the book's ancient settings, from Rome to Arabia.
Drawing on the Seth Material and years of incarnational research, Dolly Ronnai reconstructs early Christianity not as settled doctrine, but as a living, contested story, culminating at the 325 AD Council of Nicaea, where the faith as we now know it took its final shape.
Inside you will discover:
• Cleopatra's unexpected role in the unfolding of sacred history
• All 27 books of the New Testament, individually placed in time and authorship
• A scholarly reframing of Paul's letters and journeys, cross-referenced to Acts throughout
• Ten original maps charting the ancient world of Paul, Cleopatra, and the early Church
• The dramatized martyrdom of Saint Katharine of Alexandria
For Christians curious about early church history, this book offers a chance to rediscover faith's origins through fresh eyes. For readers of visionary historical fiction, it offers the sweep of centuries and the texture of real scholarship. For spiritual seekers, it opens a door into the deeper mysteries of incarnation, soul, and divine truth.
Author Dolly Ronnai, previously published as Arthur Telling, brings to this work years of research and the lived perspective of incarnational exploration, a rare synthesis of the scholarly and the mystical.
Step into this re-envisioned gospel. Enter Cleopatra's testimony. Confront Paul's letters anew. And discover a crucifixion that is not an ending, but a beginning.
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Praise for this book
Review of The Incarnation
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Incarnation" by Arthur Telling.]
The Incarnation is a historical novel written by Arthur Telling and that tells an entirely different story of Jesus Christ. The Incarnation is inspired by the canonical biblical texts.
This novel gives us a totally different point of view on Christian dogma and makes us wonder about a lot of existential issues.
First of all, we meet the apostle Paul, who is a Jew and a Roman citizen. He never met Jesus, but he is one of the founding fathers of the first Christian churches. Sometimes we realize that the apostle Paul defends a thesis, but then we realize that he defends the absolute opposite of that. He is such a controversial character that at some point I was not sure if I should consider Paul a genuine person or a charlatan. For example, for the apostle Paul, the physical crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not an important issue at all.
Then, by reading the book, we ask ourselves, Was Jesus really crucified? In the minds of many, he indeed was. If so, the narrative is a vehicle for delivering a message, and the narrative isn't important. That makes us wonder if the truth is something without importance. Truth be told, we’ll never know where the truth lies. And that’s not fair to say that it’s an exclusively Christian problem. All religions based on people who lived hundreds of years ago have the same contradictions. On the other hand, this vision allows us to be more tolerant about religion. If we can’t rigorously say what happened a hundred years ago, we’ll have to be more flexible by accepting religion's contradictions and not accepting any religious dogmas. If we see religion from this perspective, we’ll be more understanding.
I really found nothing to dislike.I rate this book, The Incarnation, five out of five stars. The book is exceptionally well edited, and I found no errors while reading it. I recommend the book to Christians who don't believe in the fundamental and absolute truth of the Bible.