Man in White Read online

  “Two of the most wonderful friends that God ever gave my wife and me were Johnny and June Cash. Now that they are both in Heaven, we miss our times together with them. During one of our vacations together, I watched Johnny working many hours on a book he was writing. He had done extensive research and study of the life of the apostle Paul, and amazed us as he talked about Paul and we shared the Scriptures together.

  Johnny’s book is a novel based on Paul, entitled Man in White.When it was first published several years ago,my wife and I both read it—then read it again! Now that it is to be reprinted, I hope that its new audience will enjoy the novel, and be challenged to also read the entire biblical account of Paul, the great follower of Jesus Christ, the Man in White.”

  —Billy Graham

  May, 2006

  Montreat, NC

  A Novel About the Apostle Paul

  JOHNNY CASH

  © 1986 by John R. Cash

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Cash, Johnny.

  Man in white / Johnny Cash.

  p. cm.

  ISBN-10: 1-59554-237-X

  ISBN-13: 978-1-59554-237-3

  1. Paul, the Apostle, Saint—Fiction. 2. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600—Fiction. 3. Bible. N.T.—History of Biblical events—Fiction. 4. Christian saints—Fiction. 5. Apostles—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3553.A7937M3 2006

  813'.54—dc22

  2006006840

  Printed in the United States of America

  07 08 09 10 11 QW 7 6 5 4 3 2

  This book is dedicated to my father, Ray Cash,

  1897–1985, veteran of World War I.

  Discharge: Honorable. Conduct: Good.

  The friends of the Nazarene became united

  And I became enraged

  And led a slaughter zealously

  I found their secret places

  They were beaten, they were chained

  But some of them were scattered

  Justified in fearing me.

  Then the Man in White

  Appeared to me

  In such a blinding light

  It struck me down

  And with its brilliance

  Took away my sight

  Then the Man in White

  In gentle loving tones spoke to me

  And I was blinded so that I might see

  The Man in White

  © COPYRIGHT 1986 BY JOHN R. CASH

  AURIGA RA MUSIC, INC.

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  PROLOGUE

  ONE: THE VOW, AD 37

  TWO: THE FAST

  THREE: THE PURGE

  FOUR: THE ILLUMINATION

  FIVE: THE WANDERING

  SIX: REVELATION

  SEVEN: THE FELLOWSHIP, AD 40

  EPILOGUE, AD 70

  AFTERWORD: THE THORN REMOVED?

  INTRODUCTION

  It is highly unlikely that, having taken years, and with a lengthy period of respite from writing Man in White, I could possibly name everyone who, in some way or another, directly or indirectly, purposely, incidentally, accidentally, unknowingly, unwillingly, unintentionally, uncaring, unwanting, or eagerly, hopefully, helpfully contributed to the completion of this publication.

  Many don’t remember, as I may not, nor do they realize the vital role they played in this work, and I regret that I failed to give due credit to those whose contribution fails my memory.

  Thanks to Irene Gibbs, my secretary, who typed, retyped, retyped, and retyped.

  To Roy M. Carlisle of Harper & Row San Francisco, who, after reading the first draft, said, “Come on now, John. Give me a break. Put a little more prayer and thought into the first scene depicting a Christian worship service, then write it again, please?”

  Thanks also to the agnostics, the atheists, the unconcerned, and the uncaring. These may have been among the most inspiring and encouraging by providing the negative force I needed against my determination.

  I’m a traveling man, and I meet a lot of people. I have, on occasion, had the opportunity to talk to people of diverse persuasions. I introduced myself to an Orthodox Jew at the Newark Airport baggage claim area. Reluctantly, he shook my hand. He took a step backward in hesitant awe when I asked him,“Could you please tell me a little about the Feast ofWeeks, as it was celebrated around AD 60?”

  He finally warmed to the subject and supplied me with insight into that period.

  I had numerous dinner-table discussions (sometimes confusing) with conservative synagogue members about first-century Temple life. I was instructed by Jewish associates in ethics, traditions, customs, and actions from the old school, the new school, and the unschooled.

  I went to a Western store in Los Angeles and bought saddlebags that I carried over my shoulders for the last five years of my travels. In the bag was my “book.” Also the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible; the New International Version; the Catholic Bible; and from time to time, Everyday Life in Jesus’ Time; Foxe’s Book of Martyrs; A History of the Early Church; The Twelve Apostles; The Twelve Caesars; the Jewish Encyclopedia; and the writings of the Romanized Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.

  June read each and every page and in her painfully honest way let me know what she thought. I listened, waited, prayed, and then acted upon my own judgment, as I did with other, less outspoken critics.

  A reporter asked me, “What is this about a new book you’re writing?”

  “It’s called Man in White,” I replied.

  “Neat idea. Man in White by the man in black.”

  I nodded, waiting.

  “What’s it about?” he asked.

  “The apostle Paul’s conversion, before and after,” I explained. “It’s a novel.”

  “Nothing about yourself?”

  “No, it happens in the first century AD.”

  “Really, a novel? Anything about prisons?” he laughed.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, Paul sang in prison. He sang a jail-breaking song.”

  “Really. What was the song?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “He and a guy named Silas sang a duet, but they never recorded it.”

  Others I’ve talked with about it were excited, or at least intrigued.

  “Is it written from the Baptist Church’s angle?” one asked. “You are a Baptist, aren’t you?”

  “Paul was not a Baptist,” I replied. “He admonished those whose doctrinal tenets focused on John the Baptist.”

  “Then you’re a Catholic, maybe?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” I said, “since catholic means ‘universal.’”

  “But not the Roman Catholic Church?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “Paul was a Jew. He was a doctor of the Law.”

  “Then it’s written from the Jewish viewpoint, right?”

  “No, mine,” I said.

  “But you’re a Baptist.”


  I finally settled on a fundamental answer. “I, as a believer that Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, the Christ of the Greeks, was the Anointed One of God (born of the seed of David, upon faith as Abraham had faith, and it was accounted to him for righteousness), am grafted onto the true vine, and am one of the heirs of God’s covenant with Israel.”

  “What?”

  “I’m a Christian,” I said. “Don’t put me in another box.”

  There was a long pause, and then he said, “Really, Adolph Hitler was a Christian.”

  “He was not,” I argued. “There was nothing Christlike in what he did.”

  “How do you know?” he asked.

  I thought for a minute. “I don’t really know,” I said, “but Jesus said, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them,’ and I’ve seen his fruits.”

  “Where?” he asked.

  “At the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem,” I said.

  Thanks to Ken Overstreet, Jay Kessler, Dan McKinnon, and all at Youth for Christ.

  Thanks to Dr. David Weinstein, chancellor of Spertus College of Judaica in Chicago, for his invaluable contribution.

  Karen Robin, wife of my agent, Lou Robin, is a diligent student of Christianity, and in recent years a convert to Judaism, in which she has dedicated herself to studies in the Law and tradition, ancient and modern. She most graciously caused me to search out and prove numerous Hebraic pieces of my narrative. To her, I am indebted, as I am to her husband, Lou, who confirmed, or at times added with a few words, a feast of food for thought.

  To Stephanie Mills, to Chet Hagen, and to Judy Markham. To Marty Klein, head of the Agency for the Performing Arts, with whom I have been associated for fifteen years, who listened to parts of my story from time to time, and who greatly encouraged me to express this work in my own words and imagery.

  When June and I were married in 1968, we read a lot. We found much common ground in our tastes for books.

  I had just come off seven years of addiction to amphetamines and other prescription drugs. I had been a devastated, incoherent, unpredictable, self-destructive, raging terror at times during those years.

  Now with a lot of love and a lot of prayers and that madness behind me, we spend a lot of time reading great books. Having been on vacation to Israel, we love everything we read relative to that land, especially about it during the time of Christ—Ben Hur, The Robe, The Silver Chalice, Dear and Glorious Physician, and The Source.

  June’s father, Ezra Carter, left me his religious-historical library when he died. He had talked to me about some of his favorite reading, books about the early church fathers, the post-Nicene and ante-Nicene councils. He kept telling me before he died, “You’re going to love Josephus and Pliny and Seutonius and Gibbons and Tacitus.”

  At first I found Josephus slow, plodding, and hard to read, but the more I read, the more excited I got, seeing Josephus’s Roman world as the earliest Christians saw it. I eventually got into them all and bought many other books related to first-century Judea. Those dusty old books came to life.

  For example, do you know about the world’s first recorded “mooning”? Mooning is a bit like “streaking,” where a person suddenly appears naked and runs through a public place, but in mooning, only his backside is bared.

  Flavius Josephus, writing around AD 80, tells us that it was during the reign of Augustus Caesar that Roman soldiers caused a near riot by marching past the holy Temple at Jerusalem bearing their banners and holding aloft the imperial-blazoned eagle. Angry over the presence of such an engraved image, the priests and elders of the Temple shouted insults and threw stones at the standard. As the column of soldiers passed by, ignoring the Temple and its priests and elders, according to Josephus, “a centurion stopped and faced the Jews. He then, turning in the opposite direction, raised his tunic, lowered his loincloth, bent over, and bared his hindmost parts to the priests and elders.” The first known recorded mooning.

  For three years, June and I took correspondence courses in the Bible from Christian International in Phoenix through Evangel Temple in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, which was the church we belonged to at the time. We worked on assignments at home, on the road, on the bus, on planes, and sometimes in a quiet spot like a cabin in the woods near home. Whenever we had a few minutes or a few hours, we would work on our lessons; then we’d mail them in and await the next course.

  In 1977, three years from the time we began, we got signed, wax-sealed certificates from Christian International. We never hung them up for display. “This is only the beginning,” I said. “All my degree means to me is that I am now qualified to study the Bible.”

  That last course I had finished I couldn’t get off my mind—“The Life and Epistles of St. Paul” by Conybere and Howson. I started reading books about Paul, the novels, and there are some very good ones, especially the ones by Sholem Asch and John Pollock. Then I got into the commentaries on Paul by Lange, Farrar, Barnes, Fleetwood, and others. I started making notes and writing my own thoughts on Paul when I saw so many different opinions in so many areas. Tons of material has been written about his differences with Peter and Mark, but I discovered that the Bible can shed a lot of light on commentaries.

  And for ages pulpiteers have speculated on the physical makeup of his “thorn in the flesh”—how big it was and where it stuck him. Why didn’t he pull it out? He couldn’t, and that’s probably why he had a doctor (Luke) traveling with him. He was probably an epileptic, someone said. Was the thorn symbolic? He craved young women, said another, and so on and so on.

  Well, I decided, if theologians can do so much speculating and make it interesting, I might throw in my two cents worth. After all, Paul had become my hero. He was invincible! He made it his life’s mission to conquer and convert the idolatrous, pagan world over to Jesus Christ. And he did everything he planned that he lived long enough to do.

  He smiled at his persecutions. He was beaten with rods, with the lash, with stones; he was insulted, attacked by mobs, and imprisoned; his own people hated him. Yet he said, because of Jesus Christ, he had learned to be content in whatever state he was in!

  As an old man in prison in Rome, in his last days, he wrote of things he still wanted to do, one of which was to evangelize Spain! He always had a great plan and he always carried it through; then he made journey after journey to go back to the cities he had visited to make sure people were running things the way he taught them to.

  I started writing about Paul in a kind of documentary way, but right up front there wasn’t much to document. He suddenly appears at Stephen’s execution, and the Bible says that he had cast his vote against him. The people who killed Stephen laid their clothes at Paul’s (Saul’s) feet. Why? I wondered. I had to know. I found out why.

  When he said he zealously persecuted the Christians, I wanted to know what he said, what he did. How long did he do it? What did his own people think of him? As a Pharisee, what was his relationship with the high priest? Was the high priest happy to give him letters to go to Damascus because he was glad to get him out of town? Maybe so. He had really disturbed the peace in Jerusalem.

  The Roman Empire had its own little thorn in the flesh—Judea. The most undesirable appointment for a Roman officer would be to be sent to “govern” Judea. It was a remote, miserable outpost. In the time of Tiberius Caesar, governors or procurators such as Pilate and Marcellus soon learned that the Jews governed themselves, with the Temple to their one God as the center of their religious and social life. The high priest was their top man, no matter who Rome sent.

  Rome was forced to allow them to mint their own money, for the Roman coins with their idolatrous images were forbidden in holy places. Jewish coins were simply designed and crudely struck. A shock of wheat or a pomegranate tree might appear on one side and numbers signifying the number of years since the last rebellion against Rome on the other.

  The followers of Christ were at first considered by the high priest and most of the general population to be just another Jewish
sect, of which there were many. But of all the sects, this was the most despicable. They worshiped a dead Galilean preacher who couldn’t even keep himself alive. He died the most shameful death the Romans could devise. It was said that his friends stole his body after he was buried—grave robbing, a most depraved crime, punishable by death.

  The horror stories grew. His friends said that he rose from the dead, walked with them, then ascended to heaven before their eyes. After he was gone, it was reported to the high priest that the followers of the Nazarene had kept some of his blood and drank it whenever they got together. To drink blood, according to the Law of Moses, was abominable. And how about his flesh? Yes, they even told how he had left them pieces of his flesh to eat in remembrance of him. Cannibalism!

  So it was not just the Temple theocracy in Jerusalem that considered the Christians enemies of God; the whole flood of public opinion was against them. They became a closed society to survive. And the man who would later write fourteen books of the New Testament was their most hostile persecutor.

  Jesus Christ told us how to live. The apostle Paul showed us how the plan works. Jesus Christ told us how to die, unafraid, with an eternity of peace following, and Paul showed us how to prepare for it.

  It was Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the followers of the Nazarene, who left Jerusalem bound for Damascus to find, arrest, bring to trial, and execute those who worshiped that “Name.”

  And it was Paul, the apostle for Jesus Christ to the world, who entered Damascus a few days later.

  Jesus had died, been resurrected, and ascended to heaven, according to his disciples, and they expected his eventual second coming. They looked anxiously for the promised return. Every convert expected it. No one, especially Saul the Pharisee, authority and expert on Mosaic Law, expected him to appear in the middle of a clear day and to have a one-on-one conversation with him.

  As best I can time it, not accounting for any pauses in the exchange of dialogue between Jesus and Paul and according to Paul’s writing in his Letters, the conversation lasted approximately one minute, maybe a few seconds less. Yet a world was changed because of that one-minute conversation. It was one great paramount minute in the history of humankind. That minute determined the destiny of countless millions of people yet to be born. No event short of the birth of Jesus Christ himself has affected the life of humankind on this earth as powerfully as the commands given and accepted in that one minute. But what we know about Saul/Paul from three years before that minute to three years after that minute, we can glean from only a few versus of Scripture.