The Silver Chalice

Richard C. Smith is a professor in the Classics Department of the
University of Alberta.

Although Thomas Costain died in 1965, his novels of historical fiction
have remained popular items on library shelves. The Silver Chalice,
first published in 1952, was inspired by the (then) recent purchase, by
the Metropolitan Museum of New York, of an ancient artifact called the
great Chalice of Antioch, for which the claim was made that the cup that
the chalice held could indeed have been the cup used at the Last Supper
by Jesus. While such claims cannot be proved, they were sufficient to
inspire Costain to wonder about the craftsman who created the chalice
and to weave this intriguing story about his efforts to complete the
work.

In order to make the work more accessible to today’s readers, James
Bell has revised the work in more modern phrasing and made it a part of
a series of “Christian Epics.” While not comparable to the two other
classics in the series—Ben Hur and Quo Vadis—this novel does tell a
story that bounces along from Antioch to Jerusalem and Rome and then
back to Antioch, where the chalice is finally completed and then lost
(for future archaeological discovery!). The narrative ranges from the
excitement of an early Indiana Jones tale to the rather improbable
ideals of a Victorian novel. All the major Christian figures—Paul,
Luke, Peter, Mark, and John—are encountered, as well as a would-be
Christian competitor, Simon Magus, who meets his well-deserved fate in
Rome by failing an attempt to fly before Nero. There are a number of
anachronisms but, by and large, the novel is a creative introduction to
the period and worth a reprint.