For published writers...

I'm working on a novel called The Sidonian Archer retelling the story that a Roman soldier, a Sidonian archer by the name of Pantera, was the biological father of Jesus through a relationship with Mary in diary format.

I plan to get it published after I've done more detailed research and it's been through several drafts. My idea is that it would be a YA historical piece centring on the romance between Maryam, a thirteen to fourteen year old Galilean Jewish girl and Abdes, a fourteen to fifteen year old Syro-Phoenician fugitive slave-turned-Roman-archer in 7 BC, as well as Abdes' attempt to evade slave-catchers and deal with resentment towards the Roman occupation and Herod the Great as Roman-supported client king of Judaea directed at him and his fellow recruits which has the potential to erupt into physical violence. The story would basically be a historical epic written in the form of Pantera's diary, expressing his thoughts on events in his life.

It would culminate in 4 BCE with Herod's death, the burning of Sepphoris, the brutal suppression of Judas ben Hezekiah's revolt and end with the second cohort remaining in Nazareth to witness the rebuilding of Sepphoris. Pantera continues to see Maryam and Yeshua, now known as Yeshua ben Yosef.

Part of my motivation for writing the story (other than my fascination with it and its possible historical roots) was the fact that outside of books written specifically for a Christian audience or with a Christian emphasis by openly-Christian writers, there are very few YA novels dealing with the historical Jesus and the kind of person he could have been. The most you get is a few references to the early Christians in novels set in Ancient Rome. And most (in fact I'd say all) of those books that do are understandably Christian. I always wanted to write one, and this is it.

This isn't a thread on whether the idea is workable. My hunch although I could be wrong is that it wouldn't even be that provocative, especially since books like the His Dark Materials trilogy, which is basically the atheist Narnia, have been published, loads of wacky theories about Jesus have inspired fiction, and this particular legend has been adapted before.

Questioning Jesus' divinity through questioning the virgin birth is also hardly new. OTOH I have a feeling that writing a historical novel for young adults which deliberately questions the divinity of Christ is a whole different thing to writing a fantasy trilogy which deliberately attacks the Christian church when you're an atheist.

edited 6th Dec '14 4:52:32 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

For the primary questions, what goal do you wish to accomplish with this story? How would you like the readers to feel regarding certain points in the story and the characters? Understanding your own goals, and then testing it out on beta readers to see if your goal is accomplished is one way to know if it's ready to publish.