Anna of Arimathea

By Susanne Blumer

Description:

Some wounds are carried in silence. Some healings require more than medicine.

Eighteen-year-old Anna bears the marks of a childhood tragedy that left her motherless, scarred, and lame. Hidden within the household of her father, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy councilman of the Sanhedrin, her days are measured in herb gardens and healing tinctures, in the steady work of hands trained to help others, and in the quiet safety of a world made small.

Then Andrew of Bethsaida arrives at her father's gate with urgent business for Joseph and talk of a teacher who calls ordinary people to extraordinary purpose. A fisherman turned disciple, Andrew follows the rabbi Jesus with a conviction that unsettles every long-held expectation—including Anna's own.

When Andrew's kindness cracks open the door to a larger world, Anna faces an impossible choice: remain in the safety of her father's estate or risk everything for the possibility of healing, love, and a life she never dared imagine.

Set against the dusty roads and fishing villages of first-century Judea, where miracles unfold and mercy walks among the broken, Anna of Arimathea opens The Arimathea Chronicles—a richly imagined tale of faith, first love, and redemption in the footsteps of the Messiah.

Book Takeaway:

What are we willing to give up to follow Jesus? What were those early days like for those that did?

Why the author wrote this book:

Joseph of Arimathea has long fascinated me. Why was he allowed to claim the body of Jesus? Who was this man? While researching him, the idea of Anna started to take shape, and she wouldn't let me go. The Arimathea Chronicles follow her life from daughter of a Sanhedrin councilmember to follower of Jesus. What fun I've had spending time in first-century Judea every day.