The Sacred Vine by Mrs Merriel Shepo (Advent Press, 1957) is a work of extraordinary literary and theological research purporting to prove all stories, whether from myth, religion, the biographies of the famous and even the lives of fictional characters, ultimately derive from the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in The Gospels.

The first part of The Sacred Vine constructs the life of Christ from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, ancient papyri texts then recently discovered at Khirbet Qumran in Israel, the Gnostic Gospels, and the Apocrypha. It then examines the lives of some three hundred real and fictional individuals from the Buddha, through Louis XVI of France, to Pinocchio, and attempts to show how the key events in the life of Jesus are echoed in the lives of these individuals. Majestic in its scope and ambition, The Sacred Vine reveals patterns of narrative many have overlooked but ultimately it fails to prove the life of Jesus is the fons et origo for every story ever told and many of its conclusions are, frankly, bizarre. Nevertheless, Mrs Merriel Shepo’s concluding statement,

We are all Jesus; chosen by God, scourged, denied and crucified by man, we shall all sit at His right hand in heaven,

is, in your editor’s opinion, one of the great closing lines in modern academic literature.

Among the lives of the fictional characters examined by Mrs Merriel Shepo is Bheathain Somhairle, the hero of This Iron Race, and, although her conclusions are flawed, her depiction of Bheathain’s character and story is intriguing. She begins with his birth, noting his cursemark immediately set him apart from others, and then compares an early attempt on his life with the Massacre of the Innocents, described in Matthew 2:16–18. Later, once he is on the Isle of Skye, Mrs Shepo notes the man Bheathain calls his father is not his birth father as Joseph is not the birth father of Jesus, and when we first meet Bheathain he is, as Jesus is so often portrayed, a shepherd rescuing a lamb. Bheathain, as we have seen, rejects Màiri Mulcahy’s claim he has acquired the gift of Grace and Mrs Shepo compares this with an event in the little known Infancy Gospel of James, an apocryphal second century text purporting to relate the childhood of Jesus.

As Bheathain discovers, children are cruel to those who are different from them, and the infant Jesus suffered likewise. Eventually, unable to bear it any longer, Jesus reacts to the taunts and beats a boy to death with a stone. Regretting his wickedness, Jesus prays to God and begs release from the burden of being His son. Instead, God reveals to Jesus how to use his gifts to good purpose, beginning with restoring the life of the boy he murdered. Bheathain will also ultimately learn to use his gift for the benefit of others.

Another parallel between Bheathain’s story and Jesus is Bheathain’s relationship with Màiri Mulcahy. This, as you may guess, Mrs Shepo compares to the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as depicted in the gnostic text, the Gospel of Nicodemus. However, at this point we must cease comparisons or risk revealing too much of Bheathain’s future and spoiling the tale.

The Sacred Vine is an enlightening and entertaining read: who would ever have thought of comparing Pinocchio with Jesus Christ? The one crucified upon a wooden cross, the other whose burden, or cross, it is to be made of wood; both the ‘sons’ of woodworkers; both reborn after death, Pinocchio as a real boy and Jesus as the resurrected Christ; and both one part of a trinity, the roles of The Father and the Holy Ghost taken in Pinocchio’s story by Geppetto and the Fairy with Turquoise Hair. Moreover, in attempting to prove the unprovable The Sacred Vine touches on a great truth. Jesus’ story is not the template for all other narratives; rather, it follows a pattern common to all narratives, whether from myth, fiction, or history, and reveals the mythic in the flesh and blood of real people and real events.

Thus, Bheathain’s story does not lie in the shadow of Jesus Christ but follows a universal pattern much, much older, perhaps dating back to the first story ever told. Humans are, above all, storytellers and the story is how we make sense of the world.