Anna of Jerusalem (The Arimathea Chronicles #4)

The resurrection was only the beginning.

Forty days after the empty tomb, Jesus ascends into heaven and leaves His followers to face Jerusalem alone.

Anna watches the apostles preach boldly in Solomon's Portico while the Sanhedrin tightens its grip, and her father Joseph's household becomes a refuge for believers the authorities want silenced. Her husband Andrew proclaims a risen Messiah in the shadow of the temple, and at Pentecost the movement three thousand baptized in a single day, tongues of fire descending, the Holy Spirit falling on gathered crowds who came as strangers and left as family.

But the authorities are watching. And they will not wait forever.

As miracles multiply and opposition rises, Anna navigates the weight of what she carries, growing danger, and the arrival of Judas Iscariot's widow at her father's gate, seeking sanctuary for herself and the child who bears his father's name and face. Around her, a community must learn what it means to follow a risen Christ when Rome rules, and the temple wants them gone. What Jesus taught beside the roads of Galilee must now be lived in the streets of Jerusalem.

Some will be arrested. Some will flee. And some will pay the ultimate price.

The church is being born. But that birth comes in blood.

For readers who loved The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers, Anna of Jerusalem brings the explosive early years of the church to life through the eyes of a woman who stood at the cross and must now decide what she is willing to risk for what comes after.