From the back cover:

The apostle Paul is dead, executed by the emperor Nero. When news of the apostle Peter’s arrest reaches Yohanan, also known as Mark, he decides the time has come for him to leave Rome. However, before he can board a ship to Cyrene, the city of his birth, he receives a divine call to become a servant of the word — someone who can retell the account of Jesus.

In order to do so he needs to spend time with one of the last eyewitnesses still living in Rome, a woman named Junia. The process will be a lengthy one, and the danger of arrest is a daily risk. But Mark is unprepared for the memories that are stirred up, memories of his childhood, the failures and successes of his adult life, but most importantly the memories of a horrible, dark night many years ago in Jerusalem…

Become immersed in the context that gave rise to the first written gospel, the Gospel of Mark, in this exciting historical novel by Ben Chenoweth, author of The Ephesus Scroll and The Corinth Letters.

What scholars are saying about The Rome Gospel:

“How should one learn about the background to the composition of the Gospels?  Typically, one reads a section of a textbook that can be fairly dry.  Why not enjoy some historical fiction, meticulously researched and true to the time period, of life in mid-60s Rome for the fledgling church?  Why not get to know other biblical characters there with Mark, author of the oldest Gospel, complete with flashbacks to their earlier experiences that overlap with key texts in Acts or the Epistles?  Ben Chenoweth does all this and more as a spellbinding storyteller.  It will be hard for you to put the book down even once before you finish!”

—  Craig L. Blomberg
Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary, Littleton, Colorado

“Ben Chenoweth has written an imaginative historical novel about the early Christians in Rome during the time of Nero. The characters are lively, the description is dramatic, Chenoweth makes you feel like you are there, beside Mark, as he wrote his Gospel in Rome. A fun read for people wondering what it might have been like for the first Christians.”

—  Michael F. Bird
Author of The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus

“Ben Chenoweth has written an engaging and enjoyable read. He provides a fascinating fictional reconstruction of the process of Mark writing his Gospel. It is both historically plausible and sensitive to the issues and culture of the early churches in that period. He imaginatively gets under the skin of early Christians and the means by which Mark researched and wrote his Gospel — and it’s great fun! Read it: you’ll like it, and profit from it!”

— Steve Walton
Professor in New Testament, St Mary’s University, Twickenham

“The Rome Gospel is the third in the series of historical novels written by Ben Chenoweth, a faculty member of the Melbourne School of Theology. While in part fictional, they are all written with a real appreciation of NT scholarship, and have a way of bringing to life the contexts in which these NT books originated. The Rome Gospel deals with the production of Mark’s Gospel in the AD 60s while at the same time providing insightful commentary on the text of the Gospel itself. It is a book that deserves wide readership.”

—  Colin G. Kruse
Author of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentary)