Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Readers also credited Wallace's novel with making Jesus's story more believable by providing vivid descriptions of the Holy Land and inserting his own character of Judah into scenes from the gospels. One former alcoholic, George Parrish from Kewanee, Illinois, wrote the author a letter crediting "Ben-Hur" with causing him to reject alcohol and find religion. Parrish remarked: "It seemed to bring Christ home to me as nothing else could". Others who were inspired by the novel dedicated themselves to Christian service and became missionaries, some of them helping to translate "Ben-Hur" into other languages. This kind of religious support helped
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Miles Gerald Keon's "Dion and Sibyls" (1898), and J. Breckenridge Ellis's "Adnah" (1902). "Esther" and other unauthorized uses of Wallace's characters led to court cases initiated by Wallace and his son Henry, to protect authors' copyrights. At least eight translations of the book into Hebrew were made between 1959 and 1990. Some of these versions have involved wholesale restructuring of the narrative, including changes to character, dropping of Christian themes, and plot. In 2016, Wallace's great-great-granddaughter, Carol Wallace, published a version of "Ben-Hur" which was released to coincide with the new film version, using prose for 21st century readers. "Ben-Hur"'s