Book Recommendation - To Dwell Among Cedars
Connilyn Cossette is one of my go-to authors when it comes to Biblical fiction. While most "Bibfic" authors bring the Scriptures to life for me, Ms. Cossette picks the obscure parts of Israel's history and brings those elements to life. Her last series focused on the Cities of Refuge that were set up when Israel took the Promised Land. This book begins a new series and is set during the time that the Ark of the Covenant is placed in Kiryat-Yearim after it was returned from Philistine territory. This duology follows Philistine siblings who followed the Ark and were adopted into a Levite family. As you may know, adoption is something that is close to my heart, and so adding in this theme of adoption was just another thing to love about this novel!
As a part of her launch team, I was able to participate in some Q&A with her. Here's how it went:
Writing about the Philistines
must have been different research wise. Did you find out anything about them
that was unexpected that made it in the story?
Research is always one of my favorite aspects of writing historical novels. But what was especially exciting about digging into the Philistines was there have been some recent, groundbreaking discoveries made about these enigmatic people. For many, many years scholars and archeologists have speculated as to their origins and based on clues in the Word or educated guesses from the scant (in comparison to other ancient civilizations) material evidence of their culture, concluded that they were likely an Aegean people—although some believed they originated in Turkey or other areas northeast of Israel and some even speculated that they came from Africa—but no one really know anything definitive until now. But just last year the evidence came forth in the form of DNA from a Philistine cemetery! We know know that the Philistines were transplants from Europe who came down through the Aegean on ships and most notably settled on the island of Crete. Why is this important? Because this is exactly what the Bible told us. The Word says that the Philistines came from the island of Capthor which is the ancient name for Crete. Because of this DNA evidence I was able to use some of the things we know about the ancient inhabitants of Crete, including the Minoans and the Myceneans to build my imagination about what the culture of Philistia might have been. So thank you, scientists, for making a major discovery about the very people I was writing about in To Dwell among Cedars just in time!
I loved the theme of adoption
and grafting into a family. What inspired that story arc?
Well first of all, I was adopted myself at birth, so adoption is deeply entwined with my own story. My brother, too, was adopted from Korea when I was six (he was four) so there were some major cultural differences we navigated as a family over the years. As well, I am the adoptive mother of two precious kids, both of whom entered our family at birth. And since adoption is such a strong theme in the Word of God and we, through Jesus’s blood, are grafted into the family of God, when the idea sparked in my mind about two Philistine children following the Ark of the Covenant into Hebrew territory it was only natural that I would explore that theme in a physical, emotional, and a spiritual sense.
I love that you take times of
the Bible that are not as well known and expand on them. What brought you to
this portion of biblical history to write about?
It was actually my trip to Israel
in late 2017 that planted the seed of this story in my imagination. We were
traveling up from the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath and towards
Jerusalem when our tour guide mentioned we were near Beth Shemesh and likely on
the same path upon which the wagon carrying the Ark of the Covenant traveled on
its way back from Philistine territory during the events of 1 Samuel 4-7. Immediately,
I had a vision pop into my head of the cow-drawn wagon bumbling along the road
and two children following after it, curious about where it was headed. And
voila! The Covenant House series was sown into my imagination. It wasn’t until
over a year later that I began to expand that idea and plot it out with my
writing partners but I’ll never forget the moment that idea came to life in my
head on that road to Jerusalem.
What do you hope readers will
glean from this story?
My hope is that through this story
of two enemy children adopted into the family of Abraham, readers will be reminded just what a
privilege and a blessing it is to be grafted into God’s family through the
covenant of Jesus’s blood. Both Eliora (also known as Arisa) and Lukio (also known
as Natan) have different experiences when it comes to their union with the
Hebrew family that watches over the Ark of the Covenant, and both take very
different journeys to accepting their new identities as grafted-in and loved
children but the redemption they discover along the way is worth the difficult
path for certain.
Two of the main characters in
to Dwell among Cedars have a name change during the story, why did you choose
to do this (especially when it can be confusing to readers)?
In the Word, there are a number of
instances where God changes people’s names. Abram is changed to Abraham, Sarai
is changed to Sarah, Jacob is changed to Israel, and Jesus changes Simon’s name
to Peter (although the Hebrew form of that name is Kefa, not Peter). These name
changes were always accompanied with a change in the purpose of that person—a
shift in identity, if you will. And when a child is adopted into a new family
more often than not a name change is part of the union with their new family.
And without giving spoilers, I will say that my characters have drastically
different reactions to the change from Philistine to Hebrew names which are
symbolic of their own unique journeys, so I felt this aspect was necessary to
illustrate their internal struggles in accepting their new identities and
purposes among the people of Abraham.
Is there a moment in the novel
that spoke to you as you wrote it?
Yes, there was a scene I wrote
near the end of the book that had me literally sobbing as I wrote it. Perhaps
not everyone will be affected as I was by this moment but as an adopted child
it touched me deeply and reminded me just how much my Abba loves me. Of course
I can’t say exactly which scene it is, since I want readers to experience it
all without spoilers, but I can say that not only did I cry as I wrote it, I
did so every time I edited it after that. And when I read it aloud to my
daughter during editing I had to stop a number of times and catch my breath
before I could finish.
Was there a quote or scene that you felt the
Lord speak through?
“How marvelous that two enemy
children, wild branches by any measure, could—like my father had said—become
one with the sons of Avraham. Just as if we were born of the same blood.”
-Eliora. This quote sums up not only
the theme of the book, but the mystery of the Gospel itself.
What was something that has
surprised you as you begin to journey into the book of Judges and Kings?
I’d never realized that there was
a shift in the lineage of the Aaronic priesthood sometime before Eli became
high priest (1 Samuel). Instead of the descendants of Eleazar (a son of Aaron),
the descendants of Itamar (another son of Aaron) held the priestly seat for
many years and the honor was not restored to Eleazar’s line until David put
Zadok in that position. As with any shift in power, be it religious or civil,
tensions were likely very high and according to ancient Samaritan writings
there was even a civil war between the two factions during this time. Since
that is not played out in the Word, we don’t know whether or not that actually
happened, but it certainly fueled my imagination about what turbulence might
have been going on in Israel at the end of the Judges era and into that of the
Kings. Add in the Philistines, a stolen Ark, and a mysterious prophet and you
have all the makings of some high drama.
Did you find out anything
unexpected about the Philistines that made it in the story?
One of the things that people
don’t realize is just how advanced their civilization was. The Minoans and
Myceneans (who were the early Greeks) had some seriously amazing architecture
(some of which still stands at Knossos on Crete) and since the Philistines came
from Crete they brought their gorgeous art/building techniques, distinctive
pottery, advanced wine culture, and other aspects of their material culture
along with them. The things we associate with the ancient Greeks,
myths/art/governance/sports etc. all very likely were born during this time
period even if they found their golden age a few hundred years later. Their
cities were so well planned and their technology so advanced that there were
even storm drains in the street and indoor plumbing in some places. The
Philistines also brought their distinctive cooking practices with them, which
involved round hearths upon which covered cook pots with narrow necks and lids
would sit amongst low flames for long periods to tenderize even the toughest of
meats. One disturbing thing about the Philistines, however, is that puppy
sacrifice was very common and that dog meat was often in those slow cookers,
which of course was abhorrent to the Hebrews whose law said never to eat
animals with paws. The Philistines also were very fond of dice games, which
readers will discover is a favorite past-time of one important character and
they used dice that have the very same number of dots on the sides as the ones
we use now.
What comes next in this series?
Between the Wild Branches will release July 6th of next year and is a continuation of the story of the two siblings featured in this duology. All I can say is that I am totally in love with the hero (shh, don’t tell my husband) and I’ve never had so much fun writing a book as I did with BTWB. Once readers finish To Dwell among Cedars I am pretty sure they are going to be saying “hurry up July” like I am.
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