The Thirteenth Disciple
Mary Magdalene is a young Jewish girl in Roman-occupied Judea given to visions and ostracized by her patriarchal society for her “blasphemous” behavior. She is raped by a Roman soldier then sold into slavery in Babylon where she is rescued by the Roman Caius Averna who is astounded by the clarity if her premonitions. With another slave girl, Tezrah, she flees o Judea, where her life goes into a downward spiral until she meets the charismatic rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth. She becomes his primary disciple much to the charging of the male apostles, particularly Peter.
The timeline alternates with events in the present as a Vatican archaeological expedition finds the purported lost gospels of Mary Magdalene based on a prediction by Pope Annalisa. The scholars are sharply divided on the gospel’s contents as they tell a story that differs from orthodox Christian accounts. After the crucifixion, the disciples are divided, some following Magdalene’s mystical teachings imparted to her by Jesus, others preaching a more
conservative Judaism. As the successor of Jesus, Magdalene is hunted around the ancient world until cornered in Ephesus with the choice of surrendering her life or seeing her followers killed.
In the present, the scholars are attacked by a cabal that does not want the information in the gospels made public to the point that they will assassinate the pope. In the aftermath, even the most skeptical of the scholars are forced to revise their entire conception of reality as the suppressed story of Mary Magdalene unfolds.