I want to give this book 5 stars for the story but only 3 stars because of several theological disagreements I have with the text. I'm settling for 4 stars.

Overall, it is a wonderful story set in the early first century after Christ's death. The simple plot line is this: Joseph of Arimathea has hidden away the cup Jesus used during the Last Supper. His dying wish is that someone create a silver casing for it so that it can be preserved always.

Enter Basil.

Basil is a talented Greek sculptor. He is asked to travel throughout Rome and Asia minor to meet the apostles who will be engraved into the chalice, but not without difficulty. Between the Jewish high priest and Nero, both of whom have their own reasons for hating Christians or wanting the cup destroyed, the journey is a difficult one.

There are several side stories--Basil's adoption and later loss of his inheritance, the love triangle between Basil and two women, the attempts of Simon the Magician to disprove the miracles of the Jesus, and the legal battle to preserve Deborah's inheritance after Joseph's death, etc.--hence, the hefty size of this book (814 pages!).

Even if you dislike the story, you could still appreciate the writing. It obviously took a tremendous amount of research to develop the story. Costain is very detailed (sometimes too much so); he even is historically accurate down to the description of clothing that the characters are wearing.

Here are a few of the things that I disagreed with theologically:
1) Praying to angels (suggested by a Jewish nonbeliever but encouraged by the apostle Luke, a Gentile)
2) Basil's dad appears to him in a dream and says that he is stuck in the "House of Suspended Judgement" because his bad works outweighed his good--if Basil can regain his inheritance and use it the way it was intended, he might be saved (I neither believe in Purgatory or salvation through works)
3) The mystical "power" of the cup (it glows in the dark for those who believe). It's one thing to want to hang on to the cup for historical and sentimental reasons, but the characters often seemed to imply (especially at the end of the book) that the chalice had power that would be needed later.

There were several other comments that struck me as odd, but I do realize that it is a work of fiction not a theology book, so it didn't prevent me from enjoying the story.