Recently, I have been diving into reading about the books of the Bible that were left out of the Bible that I grew up with. There are a 27 New Testament books and 46 Old Testaments books that were rejected for the Bible as we know it. In my mind, if we believe that the Bible is the complete work of God then we are being incomplete when we have not read the other books that God had written. The Bible that I grew up with is not complete. This is my opinion. I digress.
In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Book of Longings she uses fiction to illustrate Mary Magdalene but changed the name to Ana. This is a gorgeous story of a rich girl who was forced to marry someone she did not love to please her father and the king and when her fiancé passes away before they could be married treated as a pariah until a man named Jesus marries her. This is a beautiful story that shows how Jesus treated women and had value for them. He did not like how they were being treated. My heart and soul devoured this story. This book is a bit out of the box thinking, but sometimes we must think in a different way to grow in our faith.
I recommend this book. I have read several of Kidd’s books and loved them all. This is no exception.
If you would like to purchase your own copy:
I purchased this book through Book of the Month Club. The opinions I express are my own and I was not influenced.