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The Secret of the Kingdom

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In The Secret of The Kindom, the Finnish author Mika Waltari tells a spellbinding tale of a man on the search for some kind of a sucstance for his life. Marcus, a wealthy and distinquished Roman, arrives in Jerusalem just in time to witness Jesus Christ being crucified outside city gates. He is marvelled by the death of this suffering man: Who was he? Was he really the son of the Israeli God? What did he mean by his teachings? And most importantly, what is the secret of his Kindom? As Marcus starts finding more about Jesus he meets many of known Bible characters, experiences the miracle of the resurrection, and begins to question the importance of his own wealth and nobility. Waltari is once again at his best in telling a semi-historic tale, in which the well depicted characters play the biggest role. Waltari's way of combining people and history, and his near-poetic writing style make the Secret of The Kindom rise well above any other historic novels. A masterpiece. Period.

I read several of Valtari's books, and enjoyed them very much. In "Kingdom" he takes the reader to ancient Palestine during Jesus' times. As in his other books, he uses a framework of a very engaging historical novel to convey a timeless story of spiritual searching. I read this book in Czech years ago, and I'd love to read it again. It's too bad more Valtari's books are not readily available to American readers!

Mika Waltari is perhaps the most known finnish writer outside Finland. Deservedly, his popular historical fiction books written between 1940 and 1960 are accurate, interesting, with good plots and well-developed characters. All of these books, in one level or another, deal with christianism and its relation with ancient people and cultures (The egyptian, the roman, etc). Since Waltari graduated in theology, that's nothing surprising. The secret of the kingdom is one of his later books, being some kind of apotheosis of his career.

The secret of the kingdom is told from Marcus' point of view. Marcus is a wealthy roman citizen, driven away to Alexandria because of a love relationship gone bad. In the egyptian city, he becomes involved with jewish culture and prophecies. Some unseen power, that Marcus can't understand, makes him go to Jerusalem (this is around 30 A.D.). When he gets closer to the sacred city, he witnesses the execution of three criminals by cruxification, but one of the condemned draws his attention: his name is Jesus. To understand the quiet power behind Jesus presence, Marcus starts to wander through Judea and Galilee, getting acquainted with Jesus' sermons, thoughts, and with people he knew and cured. Through these voyages and conversations, he wants to find his Path in life.

Waltari's book also has this quiet power that makes the reader think. His writing style is beautiful and closer to poetry than it shows to our eyes at first glance. This book is fully peopled with characters of the New Testament, although carefully centered in the ones with a minor degree of importance (that's one of its interesting features). Although a little too conservative, The secret of the kingdom is a very good fictional portrait of Jesus' last days on Earth.

In the end, what is most important about The secret of the kingdom is Jesus' beautiful message.

Grade 8.8/10

Mika Waltari is considered as the best Finnish writer of all time. His other famous novels, "The Egyptian", "The Etruscan", and "The Roman", are also first-rate historical fictions. They are on-par with great American historical fiction authors such as James Clavell and James Michener. Considering that the period in human history covered by Waltari is the ancient times-hence more mysterious-they are perhaps even more enjoyable as we get a first-hand glimpse into the lives of the ancients as seen from Waltari's imagination, translated with a superior writing prose into magnificent stories that the reader wishes would never end.

"The Secret of the Kingdom" is written in an ingenious way: a series of letters written by Marcus Mazentius to Tullia, both Romans of high standing during the reign of Tiberius. Marcus is forced to flee Rome to Alexandria, presumably because of his associations with the married Tullia. As Marcus-a man who like many of the Roman aristocracy of the time, has spiritual beliefs that follow the scientific teachings of Greek philosophers-squanders his time and money in Alexandria awaiting his love's arrival, he is mysteriously guided to Judea, where he personally witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He is intrigued by his teachings and thereafter seeks to learn more about him, his followers, and his message. Along the way, we meet many of the faces of the Christian First Testament: Pontius Pilot, Claudia Procula, Mary Magdalene, Paul, Mathew and Johanna (Herod Antipas' wife), among others. The characters are all intertwined in a series of remarkable events that follow parts of the First Testament somewhat loosely, yet they resemble many of the events, and here is where there is an additional enigma: Waltari must have named his character Marcus Mazentius because there is mystery about the author of the second gospel (the Gospel according to Mark) in the First Testament. Some scholars say that he was a Roman who converted to Christianity and lived in Rome and Alexandria (as in the novel):

"Unlike the author of Matthew (who very likely wrote his gospel for a Palestinian audience) the author of Mark appears much less less informed about the Palestinian area and Judaism. For example, Mark 8:27 speaks of "the villages of Caesarea Philippi" but Caesarea Philippi was a single town. This would be consistent with Mark being gentile writer living in Rome. The location where the gospel was committed to writing, however, was Alexandria, Egypt."

Others scholars say that it was written in Syria or Galillee by Marc, or someone or some followers who associated themselves with Marc:

"A more accepted theory is that the gospel was written by a member or a group of members in a community that associated themselves with Mark, or that was founded by Mark, or even written by an unknown Christian named Mark. Modern scholars suggest Galilee or Syria as likely places of origin."

Still others say that he was a Jew:

"There is also evidence that the author of Mark may have been Jewish or had a Jewish background. Many scholars argue that the gospel has a Semitic flavor to it, by which they mean that there are Semitic syntactical features occurring in the context of Greek words and sentences. Example of this Semitic "flavor" include verbs located at the beginning of sentences, the widespread use of asyndeta (placing clauses together without conjunctions), and parataxis (joining clauses with the conjunction kai, which means "and")."

Whoever in fact wrote the second gospel, what really makes this book so entertaining-regardless of whether or not you are a believer in Jesus Christ-is that as in his other books, Waltari's superb description of characters and events really makes you feel as you were experiencing the ancient times through your own eyes.

Mika Waltari wrote 50 years ago, but his work is of classic quality and will definitely appeal to today's readers of historical fiction. The is the first of a two book series, followed by "The Roman", also excellent, which is set a generation later in the decadence of Rome.

Marcus, a Roman dilettante with an interest in philosophy and prophecy, travels to Jerusalem as a tourist to see the Jewish Temple. There, he arrives outside the city just in time to witness the crucifixion of Christ. Deeply moved by what he has just seen, he spends the rest of the book in Jerusalem and Galilee meeting various New Testament characters, trying to understand the secret of the astonishing invisible Kingdom he has stumbled upon.

The book will be appreciated by Christians especially for its historically accurate, sympathetic, and very human portrayal of the founders of our faith, as a world-weary Roman pursues his skeptical path toward faith in Christ.

This book drives me to tears and makes me believe in the love of God.