Witness to the Crucifixion. A novel by David Benjamin

"Saint Paul, Private Eye"

Witness to the Crucifixion

By David Benjamin

It is written, in Matthew, that Jesus, on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Was this all Jesus said? Who was present to hear him say anything at all? His disciples had fled in fear. Roman soldiers surrounded him. Was there a secret revealed at the Crucifixion—lost forever because there was no one to bear witness?
Paul, the “saint” who for ten years tormented the followers of Jesus, suffers visions of the Crucifixion. He is haunted by its secret. After flee-ing near-death in Damascus, Paul begins a quest for one witness who can solve…
… the Golgotha murder mystery.
Paul’s winding journey carries him far and wide throughout the Ho-ly Land—and beyond. He faces constant danger from a host of ene-mies—from the King of Syria to the powerful brother of Jesus, known as James the Just.
Paul is beaten, mobbed, knifed, shipwrecked, cast away, bewitched and flung into prison. His only “friend” is a rogue apostle named Iscari-ot, whose death was “greatly exaggerated.”
Paul’s tortuous quest ends at last in Jerusalem, in the midnight gloom of Herod’s Great Temple. At last, Paul meets his witness and fac-es a shocking that will change his life and alter the course of history.

AWARDS: NYC Big Book Awards, Distinguished Favorite, Literary Fiction, 2022. Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Notable 100, 2022. Independent Press Awards, Distinguished Favorite, Literary Fiction, 2023. Next Generation Indie Book Awards (Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group), Finalist, General Fiction, 2023.

Witness To The Crucifixion

By David Benjamin

Price: $20

“All that we can say is that during his last days the enormous weight of the mission he had accepted pressed cruelly upon Jesus. Human nature asserted itself for a time. Perhaps he began to hesitate about his work. Terror and doubt took possession of him, and threw him into a state of exhaustion worse than death.”

—Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus