The New York Times bestselling author of Buddha and Jesus weaves together historical narrative, mystery, exciting adventure, and intrigue in this masterfully told novel that reveals surprising discoveries about the unknown last disciple of Christ, and a new understanding of who Jesus was in his final days. When a solid gold reliquary missing from a church in Belgium suddenly resurfaces in America, a young newspaperman begins to investigate the story. At first, it seems like just another case of a treasure stolen during World War II that has resurfaced. But it soon becomes apparent that much more is at stake. Hidden within the medieval reliquary is a gold box that holds a sacred relic—a single finger bone—from an anonymous saint. Why would the remains of someone unknown to the Church be considered holy? The search for answers leads to a shocking discovery—a dangerous secret known only to a small band of people. If one touches the reliquary, a sacred vision is received—a vision involving a young girl who had a chance encounter with Jesus just before he was crucified. The few people who have been blessed with these miraculous messages have banded together into a mysterious school, a closed society that preserves this venerated wisdom. But their knowledge of the young girl and Jesus is at once so fascinating yet so highly controversial that it cannot be shared with the world. This young girl, curious about the charismatic man named Jesus, embarks on a quest to find out who he really was. What she finds—the knowledge the society protects—is at times far different from the accepted gospels. Could this unknown girl be the 13th Disciple—the last and truest apostle of Christ?

This is the groundbreaking novel that fills in so many puzzling passages and mysteries woven into the familiar scriptural stories of the Bible. Using the near- lost gospels of the earliest Judeo-Christian mystics recovered recent times, Peter Canova reconstructs Western spiritual history in a spellbinding novel of fall, transcendence, and redemption. Mary Magdalene's story in not just about the lost feminine voice of the early Church-her story is our story, the universal saga of humanity's origin, destiny, and purpose. It is the story of an explosive divine knowledge being silenced by opposing powers to prevent a shocking truth from transforming mankind with a new paradigm for existence. Magdalene escapes slavery and forced prostitution to become the primary disciple of Jesus and bear the secret, radical knowledge he taught to an elect few. Set against the clash of opposing empires and a backdrop of murder, espionage, and betrayal, Magdalene is pursued by a Roman assassin as she embarks on an odyssey across the ancient world. She seeks the key that will make her worthy to reveal the true message of the martyred Jesus before she too is silenced and her native Judea is destroyed in a rain of fire and blood.

In this engaging book from popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas, a portrait of each apostle as a servant in ministry, a human being, and individual are drawn from Scripture as well as historical writings and tradition. A chapter is also devoted to Mathias, the successor to Judas Iscariot. Each chapter features a key passage of Scripture. At the end of the book is a 16-page study guide.

In the ruins of a medieval monastery, the diary of a 12th-century monk has been uncovered . . . and the murders have already begun. It is rumored the monk's writings offer clues to the whereabouts of a scroll dating back to the time of Jesus—the creation of a hitherto unknown intimate who recorded the actual words of Christ. Two people possess the combined skills to follow where the document leads: American cybersleuth Gil Pearson and Sabbie Karaim, former Israeli commando and biblical translator. But what awaits them on their strange odyssey across the globe and through two thousand years of history is both an indescribable treasure and an unrelenting terror. For all manner of zealots and devils are after the secrets they seek—to own the power to destroy the world we know.

A profound and moving journey into the heart of Christianity that explores the mysterious and often paradoxical lives and legacies of the Twelve Apostles—a book both for those of the faith and for others who seek to understand Christianity from the outside in. “Expertly researched and fascinating… Bissell is a wonderfully sure guide to these mysterious men.… This is a serious book about the origins of Christianity that is also very funny. How often can you say that?” —The Independent Peter, Matthew, Thomas, John: Who were these men? What was their relationship to Jesus? Tom Bissell provides rich and surprising answers to these ancient, elusive questions. He examines not just who these men were (and weren’t), but also how their identities have taken shape over the course of two millennia. Ultimately, Bissell finds that the story of the apostles is the story of early Christianity: its competing versions of Jesus’s ministry, its countless schisms, and its ultimate evolution from an obscure Jewish sect to the global faith we know today in all its forms and permutations. In his quest to understand the underpinnings of the world’s largest religion, Bissell embarks on a years-long pilgrimage to the supposed tombs of the Twelve Apostles. He travels from Jerusalem and Rome to Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Kyrgyzstan, vividly capturing the rich diversity of Christianity’s worldwide reach. Along the way, he engages with a host of characters—priests, paupers, a Vatican archaeologist, a Palestinian taxi driver, a Russian monk—posing sharp questions that range from the religious to the philosophical to the political. Written with warmth, empathy, and rare acumen, Apostle is a brilliant synthesis of travel writing, biblical history, and a deep, lifelong relationship with Christianity. The result is an unusual, erudite, and at times hilarious book—a religious, intellectual, and personal adventure fit for believers, scholars, and wanderers alike.

April DeConick offers a new translation of the Gospel of Judas, one which seriously challenges the National Geographic interpretation of a good Judas.

Most of us would answer 'No' when asked if we were like Jesus. How do we become more like Jesus? John Koessler believes the answer is by understanding and developing the marks of a true disciple in our lives. In True Discipleship and the Companion Guide, he provides a straightforward presentation of the characteristics Jesus laid out for His disciples. As he offers teaching on the practice of discipleship and the responsibility of being a disciple, readers will be stretched in their thinking and encouraged in their journey.

In 4 BC, two babies were born beneath a brilliant star that shone down on the town of Bethlehem. The brilliance of the star was taken as a sign from God. Both were destined to survive the purge of Bethlehem. One child was Jesus of Nazareth, whose Jewish parents fled with their newborn son to Egypt in order to save his life. The second child was Marcus Titus. He was the son of a Jewish woman and Roman man. Knowing that their son faced certain death, they hid Marcus among some rocks on a hillside just beyond Bethlehem. There, he was found by Roman soldiers and sent to Rome to be raised as a Roman citizen. This is the story of two star-crossed lives. One life has been written about extensively, its history retold for multiple generations. The other life has remained a mystery except to a very few for an equal number of generations. Yet both are intimately connected to the Christian faith. Chosen by Jesus of Nazareth to write the history of his life and ministry, Marcus Titus wrote three gospels, two of which are contained in the New Testament. This is a story based upon fact, inspiration, and speculation about the one referred to in the New Testament as the other disciple. Within this story are lessons that provide the foundation for life.

The story—both romantic and terrifying—of how a handful of men, armed with nothing more than handguns and guts, forced the greatest nation in the world from their shores. On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, the first great revolution of the twentieth century began as working-class men and women occupied buildings throughout Dublin, Ireland, including the general post office on O’Connell Street. Among the commoners in the GPO was a young staff captain of the Irish Volunteers named Michael Collins. He was joined a day later by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy, Eoin Kavanagh. Four days later they would all surrender, but they had struck the match that would burn Great Britain out of Ireland for the first time in seven hundred years. The 13th Apostle is the reimagined story of how Michael Collins, along with his young acolyte Eoin, transformed Ireland from a colony into a nation. Collins’s secret weapon was his intelligence system and his assassination squad, nicknamed “The Twelve Apostles.” On November 21, 1920, the squad—with its thirteenth member, young Eoin—assassinated the entire British Secret Service in Dublin. Twelve months and sixteen days later, Collins signed the Treaty at 10 Downing Street, which brought into being what is, today, the Republic of Ireland. An epic novel in the tradition of Thomas Flanagan’s The Year of the French and Leon Uris’s Trinity, The 13th Apostle is a story that will capture the imagination and hearts of freedom-loving readers everywhere. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

A leading New Testament scholar explores key issues in the Gospel of John.