It is May 23, 1948, and Jewish and Muslim forces have been in brutal conflict since the new State of Israel was proclaimed nine days ago. The Zion Gate is closed and the Haganah patriots, struggling to hold on to the Old City, are running out of supplies. Inside the city, the defenders' valiant spirit threatens to fail. The leading Haganah strategist, Moshe Sachar, is trapped in enemy territory and desperately races to reach his pregnant wife, Rachel, and the others who continue to fight for the Old City. Rachel's grandfather sees a prophecy of hope for Jerusalem, but can Moshe reach them before it's too late? Jerusalem's Heart is a riveting novel of the battle to liberate the world's holiest city. Once again, Bodie and Brock Thoene combine an unsurpassed and timely blend of history, superb storytelling, and incredible drama that thrills from cover to cover.

The latest novel from bestselling authors Bodie and Brock Thoene continues the extraordinary story of faith and love in the first century a.d. that they began in their previous book, The Jerusalem Scrolls. The Old City has fallen and Moshe Sachar, the courageous Israeli leader, remains hidden in an underground tunnel, guarding the ancient sacred scrolls that tell of his people's long, heroic history. Following an elder rabbi's instructions, Moshe opens a scroll and again becomes immersed in the ancient biblical tale of Marcus, the Roman centurion, and Miryam, the troubled young woman he loves. Combining superb storytelling with an enchanting historical setting, this thrilling episode presents the gripping plight of a striking cast of biblical characters amid a rich tapestry of romance and intrigue.

In The Jerusalem Scrolls, bestselling authors Bodie and Brock Thoene take the story back in time from the battle for Jerusalem in 1948 to tell an ancient tale of love, faith, and redemption. After days of brutal fighting against Arab forces, Moshe Sachar, the courageous leader of the Israelis, escapes to a tunnel under the Old City and discovers sacred scrolls that tell the history of his faith and people. Opening a scroll, Moshe becomes immersed in the extraordinary story from the first century A.D. of Miryam, a beautiful yet troubled young widow, and Marcus, her Roman suitor. With stirring accounts of many events and characters from the Bible, The Jerusalem Scrolls combines wonderful storytelling with a captivating historical setting.

“Page-turning . . . Set against the political and religious turmoil of the times, the Thoenes’ story vividly reimagines the evolving friendship between Jesus and Lazarus.” —Publishers Weekly LAZARUS—the man Jesus raised from the dead in one of the most extraordinary encounters with The Living Savior in all of Scripture. But the life of Lazarus holds interest well beyond this miraculous event. Living in Bethany, near Jerusalem, Lazarus witnessed many of the most important events of Jesus’s life and ministry. Lazarus owned a vineyard and devoted his life to caring for its vines and fruit. But he encountered another man—Jesus—whose vineyard was the world, its fruit the eternal souls of men. When Lazarus’s story and the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection touch in When Jesus Wept, we are offered a unique vision into the power and comfort of Christ’s love. Brock and Bodie Thoene’s most powerful and climactic writing project to date, When Jesus Wept, captures the power and the passion of the men and women who lived through the most important days in the history of the world.

In this bestselling series Bodie and Brock Thoene have thrilled readers with an epic tale chronicling the struggle for the world's holiest and most turbulent city. As Jerusalem's Hope opens, strategist Moshe Sachar remains hidden in a secret tunnel beneath the Temple Mount, safely removed from the chaos of Israel's 1948 war of independence, while the funeral of an elder rabbi proceeds above him. Using the instructions the rabbi gave him before his death, Moshe opens another sacred scroll and is once again transported to the dramatic biblical story of a charismatic but mysterious prophet. As word of the miracles performed by this seer spreads, bloody violence erupts, threatening the future of the Roman state and revealing the prophet's surprising identity.

Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. A National Book Award Finalist The extraordinary story of how the vatican's imprisonment of a six-year-old Jewish boy in 1858 helped to bring about the collapse of the popes' worldly power in Italy. Bologna: nightfall, June 1858. A knock sounds at the door of the Jewish merchant Momolo Mortara. Two officers of the Inquisition bust inside and seize Mortara's six-year-old son, Edgardo. As the boy is wrenched from his father's arms, his mother collapses. The reason for his abduction: the boy had been secretly "baptized" by a family servant. According to papal law, the child is therefore a Catholic who can be taken from his family and delivered to a special monastery where his conversion will be completed. With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy's kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power. The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant's family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern national state. Moving and informative, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.