Winner, 2004 Logos Bookstore Award for Fiction Go back in time to first-century Jerusalem. It's a dark time in the world's holiest and most turbulent city. Walk with Peniel, the blind beggar who longs for rescue from his suffering. Peek into the lives of Susannah and Manaen, two lovers separated by overwhelming odds. And meet an unusual healer, who ignites a spark of controversy in the fire of hatred, deceit, and betrayal that is always burning in this ancient city. This first book in the A.D. Chronicles series will bring you face-to-face with the man called Yeshua.

Discover the Truth through fiction. The lepers in the Valley of Mak’ob hear the rumors—that a miracle healer is now walking the earth. Could this be the hope they have waited an eternity for? the healing they have longed for? While Lily, Cantor, and Rabbi Ahava courageously comfort the dying in the Valley, the leper Jekuthiel risks home and family, even when his baby is about to be born, to find out if the rumors are true. In these somber, deceitful days, Peniel, the once-blind beggar, makes a gut-wrenching decision. Will it cut him off from the Light? Zadok refuses to back down from his claims about Messiah. And Pharisee Simon ben Zeraim hides a devastating secret. During these dark and dangerous times, the people long for the transforming touch of the Messiah.

Journey back to first-century Jerusalem, a dark and hopeless time, when citizens are searching for their promised Messiah to return. Meet new characters Zahav, a Jewish woman who is very strong in her faith, and Alexander, a Greek with a past. Can their forbidden love endure the trials that face them? Will Susanna and Manaen's love be able to overcome bitterness and overwhelming odds? After seeing all that Yeshua has done for them, will the people believe he is the Messiah? What they choose to believe will change them all for eternity. Study questions included.

Where is the promised liberator who will set the world right? No one is secure in Judea. Betrayal and suspicion are the coin of the realm as King Herod plunges deeper into madness, determined to hold on to his kingdom . . . no matter the price. Young Mary of Nazareth receives an unusual visitor as she tends a cow in her parents’ barn. What he tells her will change everything about her life . . . and impact all those in Judea and beyond, for eternity! Yet will Yosef, her betrothed, believe her? Or will she lose the one she loves? Onias the Tutor puzzles over the ancient prophecies in secret. If anyone discovers what he knows, not only he, but his beloved wife and child, will be in imminent peril. Now signs are appearing in the heavens. But what do they mean?

The little town of Nazareth is a long way from Jerusalem and King Herod's evil clutches. Yet is anywhere in Judea far enough? Gossip swirls around the newlyweds Mary and Yosef. It is far too soon for her womb to carry the growing baby, neighbors say. Yet too much is at stake for Yosef to reveal the truth. He vows to protect Mary and the baby with his life, but how can he protect her heart from the barbs of betrayal? As beloved prophetess Hannah boldly foretells the coming of Israel’s true King, King Herod plots her doom . . . and that of anyone else he believes challenges his throne. When a dying slave stumbles into Beth-lehem on a stormy night, shepherd Zadok and his wife, Rachel, wonder, Is her arrival guided by God or a trap set by the paranoid Herod? As Mary and Yosef set out on a perilous journey to Jerusalem, astronomer Melchior sees unusual activity in the stars. He’s convinced something important will happen soon in Israel . . . and it will impact the world for all eternity.

Who in Bethlehem could guess that their tiny, obscure village, populated by shepherds, would become the hinge upon which all history turns . . . and the focus of a terrifying rampage? "Sixth Covenant" is the conclusion of the three-book Nativity story within the A.D. Chronicles series. "Sixth Covenant" chronicles Mary, Yosef, and baby Yeshua in the first months of his life in Bethlehem. From the shepherd's visit to the escape to Egypt to the Bethlehem babies who gave their life for Jesus, discover the most critical events in the history of the world.

As Yeshua continues his ministry, and is challenged by the religious leaders, his beloved friend Elazar (Lazarus), in Bethany, falls ill. When Yeshua finally arrives, it is too late . . . or is it?

After Yeshua of Nazareth has raised his friend El'azar from the dead, news of Yeshua travels fast and the Sanhedrin begin their plot to kill him. Despite the danger, Yeshua and his followers begin the journey to Jerusalem for Passover. Meanwhile, Zachai the tax collector (Zacchaeus), the most hated man in Judea, longs to be a part of the Jewish society that he has been cut off from due to his profession. He falls into despair, believing God can't hear him and that he will always be alone. Simona, a leper who was healed by Yeshua but remains cut off from society to live in the sycamore grove, shows compassion to Zachai and tells him of Yeshua. Zachai begins his quest to find Yeshua in hopes that this man can heal his heart, just as he healed Simona's leprosy.

It is a time of great danger and suffering... Yet the candle of hope still gleams The census riots are barely past. Bands of Zealots roam the canyons. Anguished shrieks echo against the hillsides of Nazareth as Rome crushes the last Jewish resistance. Herod the Butcher King is dead, but Antipas, his cruel son, now reigns in the Galil. As the Jews remember their deliverance from evil Haman, they wonder, Where is there a Mordechai for this age? Where an Esther? Nine-year-old Jude and six-year-old Kerah watch as their father, the hero of Galil, hangs on a Roman cross. His dying whisper to Jude? "Take your sister to Jerusalem." But the journey is long and dangerous. Zachariah, Elisheba, and young Youchanan watch compelling signs in the heavens and ponder what they mean. Could a day of justice be coming for the Jews? Aged acholar Rabbi Mazzar travels with his three Yeshiva students to Jerusalem for Passover and their bar mitzvahs. He has high hopes for twelve-year-old Yeshua, who seemd to study people as well as Torah. Could such a one make a great rabbi? Or be the founder of something even more enduring?

Twenty-two-year old Daniel, son of Melchior and Esther, lives out his days in rebellion and a drunken stupor . . . a great embarrassment to his father and his older brother, Joshua. Life is boring beyond belief, he thinks. But everything about his life is about to change . . . Melchior, former court astronomer, has been a wealthy merchant for the last three decades. As he prays for a miracle to save his son, he again ponders the signs he sees in the heavens. Perhaps the time of the young Messiah’s work on earth has now come to fulfillment. In this tenth book in the A.D. Chronicles series, the Thoenes tell the parable of the Prodigal Son in a dramatic and memorable fashion.

The lepers in the valley of Mak’ob hear the rumors—that a miracle worker is walking the earth. Ten lepers are chosen to leave the valley to search for this healer, knowing that outside the valley lies certain death. Will they find him in time? Could this healer be the Messiah they long for? Readers will be touched by the stories of these ten, broken, weary travelers searching for redemption.

She is a singer of sweet songs . . . and a sinner. A searcher for truth . . . and an outcast. Life is fraught with danger in the village of Sychar in the first-century A.D. But for Abigail, the Samaritan woman, the danger lies not as much from the ever-present Roman soldiers but from the rabbi and the people of Sychar. A woman of renowned beauty, whose reputation was tarnished at an early age, Abigail is pregnant . . . and the father is not her elderly husband, Zakane. While protecting her lover's name, believing he will spirit her away, Abigail is imprisoned, then nearly stoned by her neighbors. She's befriended by the beggar Leah. But even the beggars, the lowest of the low, don't want her around. Abigail longs for love, kindness, a home for her soon-to-arrive baby . . . and forgiveness for her anguished soul. The answers will come from the most unlikely of places.