Old Testament fiction by Tessa Afshar

Continuing from my previous post about Tessa Afshar’s books grounded in New Testament characters, we now turn to some based on Old Testament figures. It’s clear Afshar does a lot of research into the times that she writes about and tries to create a sense of what life would have been like for different women. 

In the Field of Grace is the story of Ruth and Boaz. I quite liked this one. Obviously she has provided 

much more fictional details than the biblical books gives us, but it’s woven in well with the biblical account containing elements that make a lot of sense. I had not really considered before that Ruth would likely have been considered infertile prior to marrying Boaz, as she never conceived with her first husband, Mahlon. There is no reason to suggest either that the first marriage wasn’t one of love and mutual affection, resulting in significant loss when he died. It is also fair to assume that as Boaz was an older man, that he may also have lost a first wife prior to meeting Ruth. So, Afshar weaves in their own stories of grief and loss. In addition, it’s fair to assume that Ruth, as a Moabitess returning with Naomi, may not have been greatly welcomed or included by the Jews, and so we have a glimpse of what it may have been like to be a foreigner amongst God’s people. 

 

Pearl in the Sand charts the life of Rahab, who Afshar sets up as being pushed into prostitution by her destitute parents as a teenager to save the rest of the family. Even with that choice, she rejects the temple prostitution and sets up her own private business. However, she is intrigued by the approaching invading Israelites and their God and privately turns to him herself, before aiding the spies and saving her family in the fall of Jericho. Then begins her interactions with Salmone, prominent leader of the tribe of Judah, and if you’ve read your genealogy in Matthew 1, you know where this inevitably ends.

Of course, Afshar has used extensive literacy licence here, but much makes sense and gets the reader thinking. What would it have been like for the people of Jericho as the Israelites got closer and closer? How did Rahab and her family assimilate into the people of Isreal, what did they have to give up and change to be included into the people of God? How did a women who had been a prostitute become wife to an Israelite leader and included in the genealogy of Christ?

As Rahab confronts her past, her guilt, her shame and her feelings of unworthiness and abandonment, Salmone is working through his own issues of judging her, and thinking she is not worthy of him or of God. Both experience real change and healing, and Afshar gives insight into the forgiveness, mercy and grace of God in all of our lives, whether they be outwardly upright or less so. 

Harvest of Rubies and Harvest of Gold are more loosely connected with the biblical narrative. Sarah, a Jewish scribe, has risen to high service in the Persian court of Artaxerxes. The King’s cousin Darius, is used to the pomp and circumstance of aristocratic life. But what happens when their lives intertwine? 

Sarah also just happens to be Nehemiah’s cousin, who is serving as cupbearer to the king. Readers are given a taste of the Persian life, rituals and court in the first book, and then follow the return of some exiles with Nehemiah to rebuild the Jerusalem in the second book.  

It’s fair to say that each book is centred around a love story. Yet at the same time, readers are encouraged by God’s grace at work in the complexity of different people’s lives and circumstances.