The Hollywood screenwriter who hopes to bring A Wretched Man to a movie screen near you, once complimented me on my imaginative, and sometimes provocative, book titles: A Wretched Man, Gonna Stick my Sword in the Golden Sand, Queer Clergy. I could add my current work in progress, Lady Liberty is a Bitch. So, where does Wormwood and Gall come from? For starters, Wormwood is a medicinal herb, and gall is bitter bile.

Of course, Paul’s own self-designation provides the title for A Wretched Man. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24. Similarly, Wormwood and Gall derives from a Biblical reference: in this case, a lament for Jerusalem:

How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 1:1 & 3:19-22

This lament aptly suggests the novel’s theme. In the midst of despair as Roman legions besiege Jerusalem, and all seems lost, a narrator scribes ink strokes on a papyrus scroll to bolster courage and inspire hope in the beleaguered remnant of Jesus followers, four decades after his crucifixion. The novel characterizes Markos (Greek for “Mark”) as someone who wrestles with existential questions as to the meaning, or meaninglessness, of life.

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