The Amulet Part One: Relic

In 1947, a monumental archeological discovery is made near the ruins of a previously unknown and long-extinct Jewish community. An ancient scroll is found. To the shock of everyone that sees it, it appears not to have aged a day in two thousand years. For years subsequent to its discovery, the find is kept hidden, knowledge of its existence never made public. Yet, one day, something inexplicable happens. Its private owner suddenly becomes terrified of it. He hurriedly contacts the Israeli Antiquities Authority, informing this organization of what he possesses, the existence of something that defies description. The IAA laughs at him, only reluctantly accepting his donation. Two months pass. During that time, to the IAA's utter astonishment, test results confirm the scroll's authenticity...that it dates to Israel of the first-century. But that is not the only thing that stuns the IAA. The relic appears to exhibit supernatural properties. One night, while studying the antiquity in an underground laboratory, the worst screams ever heard in human history reverberate through the building. Armed guards nervously enter the room. The lights do not work. Shaking as they enter the darkened laboratory, guns in hand, only one man is found, his hair white, his mind destroyed. The other is impossibly missing. The relic disappears, lost to the IAA forever.

Thirteen years after these events, unrelenting nightmarish dreams beset Emanuel Tov. He is told to go to Israel for a reason he does not know. Leaving his family astounded at his abrupt decision to attend an Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem, it is here he learns of the existence of something that, according to his rabbi, 'should not exist...something that 'scares me to my soul.' Informed of a mysterious manuscript, Emanuel learns to his amazement and horror that the very words he heard in his dream were found on burned paper scraps of a pad used in its translation years later, a translation that left men dead and incapacitated. Now terrified, Emanuel's only path to understand what is happening to him is to attempt to decipher the deadly scroll even at the risk of his own life. Over many nights, he works in fear to unravel its mystery. Weeks later, near the end of his translation, he comes across a prophecy...and in reading it, Emanuel sees his own name. In hysteria and near-panic, he bolts from the room, vowing never to return. But the scroll's hold on him is unbreakable, drawing him back, drawing him in...to accept the task as decreed in the scroll by its unknown author.

The Amulet is perhaps one of the highest-concept stories of Christian fiction ever written, of immense scale, that leads Emanuel on a daunting mission to learn of a stupefying destiny set for him two thousand years ago. And upon fulfilling that destiny, one he had resisted and fought against all the way, the world and the Vatican begin to become afraid for no one can explain what is happening. Thoughts as held by many of the story's characters in the face of these astonishing occurrences are presented...thoughts of joy...and, yes, thoughts of doubt...thoughts of repentance...thoughts of dread. Many reject what is happening as hoaxes; many do not. The world begins to panic. There is chaos and riots in the streets. Churches, synagogues and mosques are jammed with fearful worshippers, believing that what is happening presages the End of Days. The Vatican is on the verge of collapse. And upon the conclusion of The Amulet, when the world is at its most fearful, the light of the world touches the world again.