Into The Depth of Heaven

It's a love story. A Christmas story. Two thousand years ago, a teenager and three ancient wise men make plans for a dangerous journey across barren desert and raging flood. They were accompanied by all the demons and deities of old, not to mention world-shaking predictions and portents, bandits, tribal warlords and the Legions of Rome. What could possibly go wrong?

A teenage servant boy falls in with an astronomer scribe attached to the Court of Phraates the Fourth, King of the mighty Parthian Empire. The Chaldean scribe and his two best friends, an astrologer sage and a Hebrew scholar, puzzle over some unprecedented and possibly alarming signs in the heavens, including an unusual celestial object that is taking weeks to traverse the sky. There are ancient prophesies of a new king and a new order. This account takes the reader into the rich colour and life of a society highly advanced in international trade, astronomy, mathematics and agriculture. It speaks of a time when empires were rising and falling, when life was dangerous and cheap, when the victors in war won incredible wealth, status and power. In all matters primordial gods and demons were busy behind the scenes, wreaking vengeance or bestowing gifts on a whim. Truth or fiction? Check out the references at the back of the book and decide for yourself!

David Holehouse enjoyed a career in journalism as a writer and publisher, always with an abiding interest in humanity's drive to understand the universe through a spiritual lens. He is a contributing author for the book Umingmak: Start Hodgson and the Birth of the Modern Arctic by Jake Ootes (Tidewater Press, 2020). David lives near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.