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Ben-Hur

by Lew Wallace

c. 1992

First printed 1880

This is an old work but it is a classic work. The Title Page calls this a Tale of the Christ and it is that and more. It is the tale of Judah, son of the house of Hur who helped Aaron hold Moses hands up so the Amalekite army would be defeated.

Judah Ben-Hur had a childhood friend who had just returned from Rome with all the indoctrination that a “modern” Roman education could manage. He tries at first to sway Ben-Hur to the Roman side. But Ben-Hur goes to his mother and hears the history of the house of Hur and of the Jewish nation.

So, when next he accidentally almost kills the prefect and is hauled off to servitude and his widowed mother and sister to the dungeons, Ben-Hur has the tradition of his family and his God to preserve him no matter what. And no matter what includes being sold to the galley’s as a slave. There he thrives by obedience and requesting to learn both sides of the ship at oars.

Following a shipwreck, Ben-Hur is adopted by the commander of his ship and freed. He is left all the man’s earthly wealth including a villa in Misenum. But Ben-Hur longs for his mother and sister, his father’s eastate and revenge against the man who sold him to slavery. In time, he finds his father’s servant, Simonides, and exacts his revenge in a chariot race with the horses of Sheik Ilderim. He meets Balthasar who along with Melchior and Gaspar visit the Christ in the first of the eight books.

This is a story of good versus evil. It is not about a chariot race though that plays a prominent role. This is a story of a Jewish Saducee coming of age and meeting the Christ. The themes in the book are various. We have Simonides and Balthasar who disagree on what kind of kingdom the Nazarene will have–earthly or spiritual. We have two women, Iras the daughter of Balthasar and Esther the daughter of Simonides who both want Ben-Hur but for different reasons.

We have the sacrificing mother of Ben-Hur who will not give up but will not burden her children. We have the ever faithful servants of the Hurs–Amrah and Simonides who will stop at nothing to serve those whom they love.

This is the possible story of one man and his family who lived alongside Jesus and what his life might have been like and how he might have viewed the miracles and life of Christ, up close and personal. This is a timeless book.