Book of Judas Translation Rekindles Interest in Obscure Novel

The recently translated and released Book of Judas has sparked new interest in author David Niall Wilson's novel "This Is My Blood," (Re-released as "The Temptation of Blood" due to almost eerie similarities in fictional passages from "The Book of the Gospel, According to Judas Iscariot"

(PRWEB) April 9, 2006 -- The sudden surge of interest brought about by the release of the translated text of the controversial “Book of Judas” has sparked a keen and sudden interest in a text of a very different kind.

In the late 1980s, author David Niall Wilson penned a story titled “A Candle Lit in Sunlight,” which was published in Starshore Magazine, and reprinted in “The Year’s Best Horror,” edited by the late Karl Edward Wagner. This novelette inspired Wilson to expand his thoughts into a novel, which was first published in 1999. That novel, “This Is My Blood,” has some uncanny similarities in theme and content to the Coptic Codex of the newly translated Book of Judas.

Throughout this novel the reader will find excerpts from The Book of The Gospel According to Judas Iscariot – and will come to see this apostle as the best of them, the strongest in his faith, and the most willing, in the end, to lay down his life and very existence for the Lord who has promised him salvation.

Wilson, whose earlier goals in life included the ministry, and who has since become ordained, wove his story in and out of patches of time and missing events in the original four gospel accounts, doing little to change the flow of the narrative, or Christ’s message, but creating a compelling alternative tale.

In “This Is My Blood,” recently re-released as “The Temptation of Blood,” Wilson added the temptation of a woman to those offered Christ in the desert. Mary Magdalene, in this tale a fallen angel, is raised in the flesh to tempt Christ, but instead loves him and yearns to find her way back to Heaven. Christ promises her that there is a place for her in his Father’s house. Satan, infuriated, curses her to follow in the footsteps of the Messiah, drinking the innocent blood of his followers.

While this might seem to be the point where this novel and Christianity diverge, in fact what is created is a new perspective. As one of the Fallen, Mary is able to observe the apostles, men, the Pharisees, and the world from the eyes of a being who KNOWS the truth of Heaven, Hell, and redemption. Frustrated by the inability of the apostles to accept the wonder of what is offered to them, and tormented by Christ’s continued offers to set her free, despite the discrepancy this creates in prophecy, she follows him through Jerusalem and Galilee, haunting his disciples – in particular Judas Iscariot – and forced to feed on blood when her willpower fades. This is woven into the parable of the King’s daughter, and the raising of Lazarus.

Also included in this thoughtful novel are new interpretations of other myths, including the Creation, and Lilith – who actually has a face to face meeting with Jesus within its pages.

This novel is currently available through http://tinyurl.com/k3yos as “The Temptation of Blood.” An excerpt from the novel (including short passages from the fictional Book of Judas) are available at the author’s web site, http:// www.macabreink.com/Tempex.htm where it is also still possible to find copies of the original, signed numbered edition of the novel. Discussion of the similarities between this novel and The Book of Judas are ongoing in the author’s personal blog – http://deep-bluze.livejournal.com

-- “Religious ecstasy and vampiric bloodlust blend to potent effect in this horror
oriented alternate history of early Christianity.....Wilson's prose is smooth and powerful, carrying its allegorical weight with grace. His first novel is one of the most unique vampire stories to appear in recent years, balancing themes of damnation and prophesy against those of faith and redemption." -- Publisher's Weekly

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