The Jesus deal

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The Jesus Deal is a science fiction novel by the author Andreas Eschbach from 2014, which describes a journey through time to the crucifixion of Jesus and is a continuation of the novel Das Jesus Video , published in 1998 by the same author .

The novel is set mainly in the milieu of the evangelical scene in the USA, which interpret the apparitions of modern times as an approaching return of Jesus Christ in an Armageddon and want to bring the Savior into the present with the help of the time machine. For this purpose, a third world war, which is supposed to correspond to the prophecies of the Revelation of John , must first be triggered. There are numerous time paradoxes in the context of the novel.

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introduction

Most of the plot is told from the perspective of a youngster named Michael Barron, who is the second-born of what is believed to be the richest man in the world. The latter finances the evangelical movements of the world, largely hidden from the public, and is himself a devout evangelical Christian. He made his fortune with the help of insights that fell into his hands through a supposedly chance encounter with an involuntary time traveler. It is about 35 years of future stock market information. This enabled him to always make the right decision in securities transactions.

First, the final scene from the book Das Jesus Video is re-reported from a different perspective. The point was that the eponymous video was stolen from the protagonists of the earlier book, supposedly by henchmen of the Vatican . In fact, as we now learn, the narrator's father was behind the coup. He inaugurates his sons, above all the firstborn Isaac, and the representatives of numerous evangelical movements about the find, although the motives remain in the dark for the time being, as everyone agrees that it is impractical to publish recordings of Jesus because of the public discussions that are to be expected is.

The assignment to the brothers

The narrator of the story, around 14 years old at the beginning of the plot, is characterized by the fact that - unlike his older brother and despite the massive indoctrination since early childhood - he is internally a skeptic regarding evangelical teaching and its rejection of the theory of evolution stayed. He has compassion over faith and has excellent powers of observation. This is his older brother's undoing, as he reveals the code of his father's safe in which the video is located. The older brother looks at it and loses his previous certainties about it, falls out with his father and is expelled from the house forever. Later he ends up being homosexual and suffering from AIDS , in misery.

Now the second-born son is to be prepared for an important mission that is initially unknown to him in detail and which has to do with a journey through time to the time of Jesus Christ. With the help of his funds, the father commissioned a Russian scientist to scientifically fathom the possibilities of the time travel he was already familiar with (from his own experience) and to build a device for it.

It turns out that a functioning time travel impulse is only possible if certain spacetime constellations are given, which have to do with the rotation of the earth, the sun and the Milky Way in the universe . Such a constellation existed in Sweden in 1994 and a street in Oklahoma in 1959. The triggered impulse transported a Swedish woman with a heart disease with a magazine in hand directly in front of the younger self of Michael’s father, who got an idea of ​​time travel Beginning of his fortune.

The time travel plan

Michael's father is now putting together a time travel team consisting of four young men of strong faith, who grew up as orphans in evangelical children's homes, and Michael. The latter always hid his doubts from the father. The five are to be trained in ancient languages ​​such as Aramaic and in handicrafts within the next seven years, if a time travel constellation for the crucifixion of Jesus arises . The measures are camouflaged as preparations for a large Bible park project in which actors are supposed to act true to the original. In addition, the preparations take place in the deepest American province.

The appearance of John Kaun

Then the perspective changes to John Kaun, the media tycoon of the previous book, who initiated the excavation work in Israel and who gave the young student Stephen Foxx a cat-and-mouse game about the Jesus video. He finally saw the Jesus video before it was stolen by strange emergency forces. This video changed his life too, he lives in the American provinces as a co-owner of a potato chip factory , is remarried and has a 5-year-old daughter.

When she fell ill with leukemia , he met a young man with a fire mark on his face at a provincial hospital . This is exactly what he saw earlier in the video Jesus removing by the laying on of hands. When he - also in view of the diagnosis of his daughter - can again come to terms with a clear thought, he concludes that the young man will be one of the time travelers who left the Jesus video behind, and goes in search of him.

To do this, he activates his previous relationships, because he hopes to find a cure for his terminally ill daughter in this way. He meets his former head of security, who now works - living under a different name - for Michael's father. The chief of security falls into a conflict of conscience when he learns from Kaun that he is looking for the time traveler to accompany him with his daughter so that Christ heals her.

The new hope

In this situation, the head of security is contacted by a strange old man and gives Kaun information that he can meet Michael at a hotel in Jerusalem on a certain date . The time travel team has now traveled there to prepare the time travel specifically. In the conversation Michael reveals to him that his daughter does not have to travel back in time to be saved, but that he will return to the present with Jesus in a few days and his daughter will then be healed. At this point he does not yet know that the return will not take place for three and a half years (while the atomic apocalypse must take place in the present).

After Michael does not return as expected, Kaun loses hope, but, as if by chance, immediately learns about a new healing method for his daughter, for which he has to donate his bone marrow . He dies of this because of his previous illnesses, but his daughter survives. It appears that this episode has nothing to do with the actual plot. Before that, however, Kaun made contact with Stephen Foxx, asked him for a conversation and tried to convince him that a man-made Armageddon was imminent, ultimately triggered by Samuel Barron, which we must jointly prevent. Foxx remains skeptical. After Kaun's death, he receives his collected material on the matter sent to him, but initially does not attach any importance to him.

The way to Armageddon

The journey through time begins as planned. In the meantime, Michael’s father supports the US presidential candidacy of an evangelical candidate who, although defeated in the election campaign, is brought into government. With the help of dark machinations, the US Vice President is initially eliminated with the help of an exaggerated scandal, the said protégé of Michael's father becomes the new Vice President . After that, the president is temporarily turned off by an assassination attempt and the vice-president takes over the official business. Now the apocalypse must be initiated. To this end, the Third World War is to be triggered - by an attack with an airplane that is to be brought to crash on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Stephen Foxx and his Israeli-born wife are asked to attend after the Mossad's findings point to an impending event. Foxx contributes his findings from the conversation with Kaun and they realize that the crash of a remote-controlled jumbo jet is imminent. At the last moment he succeeds in taking over the control center and steering the aircraft over uninhabited area over which it explodes. Michael’s father was executed shortly after a secret trial for attempted mass murder by agents of the Mossad and the death disguised as a suicide. Likewise, the Russian scientist and the head of the security company of Michael's father are killed. Since Michael's father, believing in Jesus' return and eternal life, left no will, his wife filed for divorce and Michael remains missing, his fortune falls to the state.

The Jesus interview

At the back of the book there are excerpts from an interview in which Michael tells an (initially) unknown interviewer about the journey through time. After the team landed on a hill north of Jerusalem with the time travel device disguised as a boulder, the young people, disguised as traders from Greece, go in search of Jesus and his disciples. After a few failures and after the tyranny of the Roman occupying power becomes clear to them - they see several people who died miserably on the cross - they find Jesus and witness an outstanding and charismatic person. The fire mark of one of the travelers is also healed. As the crucifixion approaches, Michael tries to convince the others, in view of the unbelievable brutality of the suffering of Jesus, to save the still living from the cross. The others who, unlike Michael, are convinced of divine providence and Christ's resurrection, fight back. A scuffle broke out on board the time machine and one of the revolvers the team had with them for defense purposes was fired and a malfunction was triggered. The time travelers thus no longer witness the point in time at which Jesus died, and they also no longer see the events that follow afterwards. In doing so, the author withholds the reader from dealing with the question of whether or not the resurrection of Jesus took place in his eyes.

The epilogue

Kaun's widow finds a video of her husband with the interview above. It was a conversation between Kaun and John Specter, an old English sect leader who had saved the inhabitants of a small English town from a bombing by the German air force in 1940. He comes out as the old Michael Barron, who ended up in England in 1940 as a result of a problem with the time machine, while the other time travelers ended up in other ages due to the malfunction. The old man felt bound by his youthful promise to save Kaun's daughter. He therefore financed the leukemia research, and from stock market profits, as he remembered statements made by his father about his financial transactions. He also asked Kaun to help prevent Armageddon from happening. He was also responsible for the tip that led to Kaun's meeting with young Michael. The old man died shortly after the conversation. Knowing that the time machine was malfunctioning, he had previously tried to warn his own father that his plan would fail. However, he did not understand the warning and put his secret agents on him, whereby Michael died, albeit unintentionally.

Remarks

The novel contains (in all probability) a reminiscence of the influential American revival preacher Billy Graham (1918-2018). The book begins with a meeting of major US evangelical leaders. While most of them remain nameless, a "Reverend Graham" speaks out several times. The fact that he is prominently highlighted by name, and also his speeches on the subject of evangelism, suggest that Eschbach is consciously referring to Billy Graham.

Web links

literature

  • Andreas Eschbach: The Jesus Deal. Lübbe-Verlag, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-431-03900-9
  • Abridged audio book version, read by Mattias Koeberlin, ISBN 978-3-7857-5012-4 (in this abridged version, for example, all passages about John Kaun and his family are missing. John Specter's conversation partner has been changed from John Kaun to Stephen Foxx)