The original Ben-Hur

The Ben-Hur story never seems to go out of fashion. A new movie version hit theaters today, capitalizing on the 1959 blockbuster film that won a record-setting 11 Academy Awards. What’s less known is the blockbuster nature of the 1880 book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The best-seller of the 19th century was written by former Union Civil War Gen. Lew Wallace.

Wallace, son of Indiana Gov. David Wallace and a lawyer aspiring to be novelist, wanted to write a story about Jesus Christ from a different angle than the Gospels of the Bible.

Judah Ben-Hur and Messala, the Roman, had been childhood friends, with the orphaned Messala growing up in the Ben-Hur home. As they reconnected as young adults in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, Messala turned into the Roman oppressor against Ben-Hur and his family, and the conflict rolls toward the famous life-and-death chariot race between the two men in Rome.

Except for the Bible, the book sold better than anything else in that era, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Former President Ulysses S. Grant stayed up for 30-straight hours because he couldn’t put the book down. President James Garfield was so impressed with the story that he read portions between meetings and then woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get more of it. He made Wallace the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and told him to write more books. One result was another novel, The Prince of India: Or Why Constantinople Fell. The daughter of Confederate President Jefferson Davis read it aloud to her father, with the two of them staying up all night to finish the story.

Some Ben-Hur scholars think the book helped heal some of the North-South division after the Civil War, with the story’s emphasis on reconciliation through Christ instead of Ben-Hur’s temptation for revenge on the Romans.

By 1912, the book’s publisher, Harper & Brothers, had sold 1 million copies just in the United States. The book’s success spawned many trademarks: Ben-Hur coffee, Ben-Hur automobiles, Ben-Hur sleds. Perhaps, thanks to movies in 1925 and 1959, the book has stayed in print with new editions ever since.

Wallace wanted to write a good story, but he also was engaging in friendly intellectual combat with a fellow Union Civil War veteran, Robert Ingersoll, a popular orator. Ingersoll was preaching atheism as the answer to the nation’s ills. After a long train-ride conversation with Ingersoll, Wallace worried about Ingersoll’s message. Ingersoll was a leading figure in the Republican Party and a captivating speaker making speeches across the country. Wallace wondered about the impact of Ingersoll’s preaching. Would America do well with an atheist culture? Wallace also was ashamed of his own ignorance about the life of Christ and decided to pursue the question of Christ in his research.

“Up to that time, never having read the Bible, I knew nothing about sacred history,” Wallace later recalled. “In matters of a religious nature, although I was not in every respect an infidel, I was persistently and notoriously indifferent. I did not know, and, therefore, did not care. I resolved to begin the study of the good book in earnest.”

While doing the research, he converted to Christianity. “Long before I was through with my book, I became a believer in God and Christ,” he later noted.

Others came to faith after reading the book. George Parrish was living at the YMCA in Kewanee, Ill., and battling a drinking problem. He wrote to Wallace of his newfound faith inspired by the book: “It brought Christ home to me as nothing else could.” Some credited the book in convincing them to become missionaries.

Wallace would be surprised to see his story become a three-time Hollywood spectacular. He was reluctant even when it was put on the stage. Yet he was a very good storyteller, and he was retelling the greatest story of all.