Apostle
Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve
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Narrated by:
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Tom Bissell
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By:
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Tom Bissell
About this listen
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.
©2016 Tom Bissell (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“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
“At time when most discussion of religion in the public sphere is couched in impregnable certainty, mealy-mouthed apologetics or scoffing rationalism, Bissell’s voice is rare. He is properly caustic and profane about Christianity’s absurdities when necessary, but he is also vividly empathetic and conscious that this is not just one of the most significant stories ever told but also one of the most beautiful.” —The Times (UK)
“A writer of wanderlust and obsessed curiosity… Apostle is a ride-along through unanswerable questions about 12 imperfect men who set out in the first century to spread the word of Jesus Christ. The book is a trip into faith, history and skepticism. The story glows with enchanting asides and stitches together how Jesus' life and meaning were edited and refined through the ages from contradictory accounts and incongruous translations… Bissell is a writer of magpie instincts, a man seeking enlightenment amid strangers in distant geographies. His entourage of translators, drivers, a monk, an archaeologist and assorted pilgrims are, like the apostles, colloquial and universal, restless and oblivious souls that are at once amusing and profound.” —Jeffrey Fleishman, The Los Angeles Times
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Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century, Jesus' lifetime. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first-ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus' social, family, and political life. The Lost Gospel takes listeners on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm-shifting manuscript.
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Very well-crafted but uses lot of sketchy material
- By Leifen on 01-09-18
By: Simcha Jacobovici, and others
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Desire of the Everlasting Hills
- The World Before and After Jesus
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: Brian F. O'Byrne
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In his subtle and engaging investigation into the life and times of Jesus, Thomas Cahill shows us Jesus from his birth to his execution through the eyes of those who knew him and in the context of his time—a time when the Jews were struggling to maintain their beliefs under overlords who imposed their worldview on their subjects. Here is Jesus the loving friend, itinerate preacher, and quiet revolutionary, whose words and actions inspired his followers to journey throughout the Roman world and speak the truth he instilled.
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Desire Delivers
- By David on 04-18-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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The World's Greatest Book
- The Story of How the Bible Came to Be
- By: Lawrence H. Schiffman Ph.D., Jerry Pattengale Ph.D.
- Narrated by: George W. Sarris
- Length: 7 hrs
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From the earliest oral traditions to ink on parchment and ultimately the printing press, this is the story behind the best-selling book of all time. Original texts were captured and passed down from generation to generation by elders and leaders, many inked by hand in extreme conditions. Christians and Jews canonized the Christian, Catholic, and Hebrew Bibles over a period of thousands of years. Devoted people dedicated their lives throughout time to put this unique book into the hands of people worldwide.
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Couple of errors.
- By Simandl on 12-13-17
By: Lawrence H. Schiffman Ph.D., and others
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The Jesus Discovery
- The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity
- By: Simcha Jacobovici, James D. Tabor
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
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In 2010, using a specialized robotic camera, authors Tabor and Jacobovici, working with archaeologists, geologists, and forensic anthropologists, explored a previously unexcavated tomb in Jerusalem from around the time of Jesus. They made a remarkable discovery. The tomb contained several ossuaries, or bone boxes, two of which were carved with an iconic image and a Greek inscription. Taken together, the image and the inscription constitute the earliest archaeological evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection.
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Intriguing but not conclusive
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The Bible's Cutting Room Floor
- The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
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In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil.
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Good content, rather poor presentation by narrator
- By J_T on 12-28-16
By: Joel M. Hoffman
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Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code
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Dan Brown's immensely popular New York Times best-selling The Da Vinci Code is one of the most successful books of recent history. It has captivated millions the world over with its enthralling suspense and its provocative questions about the true nature of Jesus' life.
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A historian's approach to the Da Vinci code
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By: Bart D. Ehrman
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Zealot
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- By: Reza Aslan
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- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
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From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor.
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Vivid and well-researched
- By Tad Davis on 07-21-13
By: Reza Aslan
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- Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican
- By: Benjamin Blech, Roy Doliner
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Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world - the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.
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Well-researched!
- By Natalie K. on 08-28-17
By: Benjamin Blech, and others
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Pagans explores the rise of Christianity from a surprising and unique viewpoint: that of the people who witnessed their ways of life destroyed by what seemed then a powerful religious cult. These "pagans" were actually pious Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Gauls, who observed the traditions of their ancestors. To these devout polytheists, Christians who worshiped only one deity were immoral atheists who believed that a splash of water on the deathbed could erase a lifetime of sin.
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19th Century Scholarship
- By Marianne on 10-16-18
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The Kingdom
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Gripped by the tale of a Messiah whose blood we drink and body we eat, the genre-defying author Emmanuel Carrère revisits the story of the early Church in his latest work. With an idiosyncratic and at times iconoclastic take on the charms and foibles of the Church fathers, Carrère ferries listeners through his "doors" into the biblical narrative. Once inside, he follows the ragtag group of early Christians through the tumultuous days of the faith's founding.
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The Gospel of Emmanuel
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Don't Know Much about the Bible
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Bringing to life the world of the Old and New Testaments, the acclaimed creator of the bestselling Don’t Know Much About® series transforms dry, difficult reading into colorful and realistic accounts. Relying on new research and improved translations, Kenneth C. Davis uncovers some amazing questions and contradictions about what the Bible really says: Jericho’s walls may have tumbled down because the city lies on a fault line; Moses never parted the Red Sea; There was a Jesus, but he wasn’t born on Christmas and he probably wasn't an only child....
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decent survey of the topic
- By bookouri on 02-02-14
By: Kenneth C. Davis
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The Apocryphal Gospels
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Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.
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Very Interesting information.
- By KP on 12-11-16
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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
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Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
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Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
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How God Became God
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This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
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Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
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What listeners say about Apostle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Joseph Cousins
- 10-07-23
Excellent summary of early Christian history
I found this an excellent summary of what is known and not known about early Christian history, especially related to the apostles (or disciples?). Bissell and I have read many of the same books, but he has clearly done so more carefully and thoroughly then I have. He provides a lot of information and analysis, but then steps beyond to include anecdotes about his personal travels to the various tombs of the apostles. This detour away from a scholarly evaluation made the book more interesting and readable from my perspective. Note; he is an atheist so some Christians might be slightly offended at some of his characterizations. For me, it was an excellent book, with exactly the kind of analysis I was looking for.
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- DrGRob78
- 11-06-24
Beautiful prose behind mediocre research
Bissell blends travelogue, historical context, & biblical studies to tell the story of the modern encounters with the Apostles. He simply doesn’t do it well.
What Bissell does well is giving you a rambling travelogue about the modern shrines to the Apostles. He also spans a good breadth of scholarly information about the Apostles to tell their story.
But it is a deeply flawed telling.
Bissell has never met a critical theory he doesn’t like and eschews all conservative viewpoints. The Apostles don’t live in stories of faith & faithfulness but should be examined through a skeptical lens.
The challenge is Bissell makes plenty of mistakes in the book. He tries to understand incredibly complex terrain of the first century but is not equipped to make scholarly judgments.
The Apostles are left as venerated icons whose legacies are embellished and enlarged by error laden writers. His approach is typically skeptical and only informed by the most critical scholars.
At the end. I hope Bissell finds the faith he is so clearly seeking. His prose was wonderful in the book. His conclusions were withered old questions already answered by present day scholarship.
One example of his poor scholarship is a note about Paul where he says the word “pillar” in Galatians 2:9 doesn’t occur anywhere else in the NT. He is simply wrong, the term στϋλοι (pillar) actually occurs in 3 other passages in the NT: 1 Tim 3:15; Rev 3:12; 10:1. This is the kind of detail that actual scholars know and recognize that Bissell doesn’t have his academic house in order.
I would’ve given the book 2.5⭐️…but gave it an extra half star because the book is well written.
Note for the audiobook: the author is the narrator and it bears noting that this is why I think he doesn’t have significant access to actual scholarly discussions about the topics he is writing on: he mispronounces almost every ancient name. As a scholar (I have PhD in historical ecclesiology) part of gaining your education is learning how to pronounce the names. Bissell doesn’t do this well. It is a tell that he hasn’t engaged deeply in the scholarship he purports to understand.
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- Ken Ableman
- 04-05-18
A great read stumbled upon by chance.
I actually found this book only after listening to "The Disaster Artist", which the Bissell co-wrote with Greg Sestero about the latter's experience filiming "The Room". What a leap in subject matter! I've always had a curiousity about the Twelve Apostles, and this book is pretty much unique in covering them and visiting their tombs, and after "The Disaster Artist" being such a great listen, my interest was piqued.
Bissell reads the book himself, and is quite good. While scholarly in presentation in parts, he injects the odd bit of humor, too, and he discusses his experiences with quite a bit of intimacy. His experiences in India and Greece were the sections that stood out the most to me, and I really felt for him in his misery visiting the tomb of Thomas in India.
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4 people found this helpful
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- wotsallthisthen
- 07-03-24
I should have liked it more
The author, a one time Catholic turned atheist, presents an interesting overview of the many branches of the early Christian church while seeking out the purported resting places of the 12 Apostles. The travelogue chapters of the book did not hold my attention as intensely as the historical chapters, but this is just personal preference; both are well written. I think what kept me from truly engaging with the content was that the author is not a believer. This is not a slam on him; he is always respectful of the faith though at times his atheism pops through in unobtrusive and inoffensive ways. I cannot really say exactly why I wish a believer had written this. Reverence for the subject matter perhaps, though I have enjoyed other scholarly books on Christianity written sans faith. Perhaps the presented information would have held an added luster for me if it had been written in the shadow of faith. At any rate, I did learn quite a bit about the early Church, which spurred me to pick up some more in depth studies.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 05-23-17
WHO KNEW
"Apostle" is worthy of a historian's review but he/she needs to be steeped in religion to offer justice to its review. On the other hand, Bissell's story is a fascinating travelogue.
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- Otm Shank
- 04-09-16
Fascinating
A fascinating historical inquiry into the lives of the apostles; travelogue visiting purported burial places; archaeological questionings; intersections and development of various early Christianities and other religions; and contemplation of religion itself, by an author who clearly has a deep interest in the subjects but is untainted by a religious point of view himself.
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- Jonna Hayden Robinson
- 06-09-16
Narrator speaks very fast
What made the experience of listening to Apostle the most enjoyable?
slowing the speed of the narrator on my iPod. I am rookie in Christian history and the original narration speed is much too fast (for me, at least) to catch all the ancient names.
What did you like best about this story?
Whew, I learned so much. Three things stand out. 1) the description of different groups of Jewish-Christians and 2) how writings were slanted towards a specific group. And, three, the little amount of actual historical truth there is in the whole story of Christianity.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
again, speed of narration. Once I slowed down the narration, all was fine.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, material is academic in nature. However, I did look forward to my half hour listen time each evening.
Any additional comments?
End of book is not fulfilling. The author goes to great lengths to describe other apostles and the last chapter is very short.
Even with my criticisms, this book is a must read for general liberal arts knowledge. I have found the material to be useful in both my daily life and other readings. I wish the author would write books on similar topics such as the Resurrection, the Gnostic and other non-biblical accepted writings, the chapter of Revelations, etc. The research and time to write this book are to be admired. Bravo!.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael Andrion
- 10-11-20
A nice mix of history, religion and travel
Almost a total 5 star book. I really enjoyed this and maybe because the author read the book it did have the sense of traveling with him. I bought this on a whim and I am happy I did. I enjoyed the travel and the history of the apostles. This doesn't have many answers people are looking for but a good place to start.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-04-24
doesn't really go anywhere
Lots of little trivial factoids but no thesis I could find. Interesting enough but not relevatory or anything.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-13-16
Fantastic
This book is a great listen. The author is engaging and what he has to say is well worth listening to. The final paragraph and the last sentence in particular is thought provoking to say the least. Complimenti à Mr. Bissell.
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1 person found this helpful