Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is crowned the winner and showered with prizes, claiming his first strike against Rome. Messala is left with a broken body and the loss of his wealth. After the race, Judah Ben-Hur receives a letter from Iras asking him to go to the Roman palace of Idernee. When he arrives, he sees that he has been tricked. Thord, a Saxon hired by Messala, comes to kill Judah. They duel, and Ben-Hur offers Thord 4000 sestertii to let him live. Thord returns to Messala claiming to have killed Judah, so collects money from them both. Supposedly dead, Judah Ben-Hur goes to
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Christ's life, such as Reverend J. H. Ingraham's "The Prince of the House of David" (1855), preceded Wallace's novel, while others such as Charles M. Shedon's ""In His Steps": What Would Jesus Do?" (1897) followed it, but "Ben-Hur" was among the first to make Jesus a major character in a novel. Members of the clergy and others praised Wallace's detailed description of the Middle East during Jesus's lifetime and encouraged their congregations to read the book at home and during Sunday School. One Roman Catholic priest wrote to Wallace: "The messiah appears before us as I always wished him depicted".