Wallace wrote one other novel with a religious theme. In The Word (1972), a new unorthodox translation of the Bible challenges the idea of Christ's divinity. It contains the Gospel of James, which tells how Jesus survived the Crucifixion and continued his ministry for two decades. Its central male character is Steve Randall who, like Hurtado, is a modern man who has lost his traditional faith. Its central female character is Angela who, like Natale, offers a love powerful enough to restore faith. The Word is based on the controversial Dead Sea Scrolls whose discovery in the 1940s provided new insight into early Christianity. An earlier best seller on the topic is The Q Document (1964) by James Hall Roberts.