Authors: Kathleen O'Neal Gear

The Betrayal (50 page)

18. You footnoted your novel. Isn't that a little unusual? I mean, fiction is fiction, right?

Yes, and no. In all of our books we use the best nonfiction information available to re-create the past. With this book, we felt it was especially important to footnote our sources. People have a right to know where the information comes from.

19. You are both archaeologists. You must have known that this book would stir up a lot of controversy. Why did you want to write
The Betrayal
?

Because over the centuries the myth of Jesus has so obscured the actual facts of his life that his true story has been lost. We wrote
The Betrayal
in the heartfelt belief that people have a right to know who and what Jesus was. They have a right to read his original words, not those put into his mouth by later politicians with a doctrinal agenda.

We genuinely believe that knowledge does not destroy faith. It does not take Jesus away. In fact, we hope
The Betrayal
can give back the profound meaning of his life that has been stolen by centuries of revisionism.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE BETRAYAL

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^Â®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Map and illustrations by David Cain

eISBN 9781466815667

First eBook Edition : March 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gear, Kathleen O'Neal.

The betrayal : the lost life of Jesus : a novel / Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear.â1st hardcover ed.

p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”