Скачать книгу - The Betrayer

What use are drawing room manners in the middle of the desert?Falling unconscious in the Egyptian sand at Cleo Valsac’s feet is not part of Lord Quintus Bredon Deverall’s plan. He’s supposed to be whisking this young widow away from her father’s dusty camp and back to England – to her aristocratic grandfather and a respectable husband. Despite Cleo’s strong-willed nature, she can’t help but feel comforted by Quin’s protective presence.But she has no idea of this wounded stranger’s true identity… or of the passion that will begin to burn between them under the heat of the desert sun!

Paul's conflict with viscous enemies, human and otherwise, led him to employ efficacious powers, charismata (charismatic powers), and controversial and sometimes illegal practices that are only coherent when placed in context of the first century Hellenistic-Roman world. These included soul and spirit transportation, possession, and exorcisms, special techniques to repel demonic attack, as well as what was considered the darkest of black magic in the ancient world–the casting of death curses, which called on Satan to infect, harm, and even kill his enemies. All of these can be recovered in striking detail using risk analysis of his undisputed writings and comparing them with contemporary sources, papyri, and documents independent of the New Testament. The results demonstrate that Paul's letters are so much more than simply intellectual and rhetorical correspondences–they are infused with dangerous mystical and charismatic powers feared in an ancient world that was saturated with prevalent, active dark forces and multi-layered human and supernatural conflicts; of angels and demons at war; of charismata and anathemata (deadly curses); and Paul's expectation of the hemera kuriou, «Day of the Lord,» that would defeat Satan and the curse of death via pistis (faith) in the efficacious euangelion (gospel) of agape (love).