Paul Maier - The Constantine Codex

“Yes. Luke had more to say indeed. This is exactly what my wife and I concluded.”

“Just so. But what are your plans for this discovery? When will you publish?”

“Not until a total inventory of the St. James Orthodox Church at Pella is completed-for obvious reasons.”

“Oh yes, yes. That is very, very important. And I promise you that I will tell no one about this until you give me permission.”

“Thank you, esteemed Archimandrite. I was about to ask you for that favor. If the news ever got out, hordes of amateur scholars and sensationalist sleuths would converge on Pella and crowd out the true specialists.”

“Yes, and probably destroy further parts of this manuscript, if they were discovered.”

After a brief but nourishing lunch, Jon broached to Father Miltiades the ICO’s offer to help accelerate the inventory project at Mount Athos and its many monastery archives. He feared a negative response since the monks there were known to be a fiercely independent lot. One of the monasteries, in fact, had so opposed any ecumenical outreach to Roman Catholicism that it had to be excommunicated from Eastern Orthodoxy.

The genial archimandrite, however, surprised him and said, “This is an answer to prayer, dear Professor. Scholars across the world have been begging us to hurry up, to…”

“Expedite?”

“Yes, to expedite our inventory search. But we have not had enough resources or specialists to do that. But now you come here and promise us both. In the name of the Great Lavra and of all the other monasteries on the Holy Mountain, we offer you our thanks.”

Jon proffered enthusiastic thanks of his own, promising to stay in close touch with Abbot Miltiades. It was a very pleasant way to end his visit. Perhaps it was the mellow mood that actually enabled him to avoid panic on another breakneck jeep ride back to the port of Dafni. On the ferry back to the mainland, he found himself clutching the attache case closer than ever.

After a quick drive back to Thessalonica, Jon stopped at the hotel’s convenience venue to pick up a newspaper. Glancing at the news rack, he was shocked to see his own picture on the front pages of the international newspapers. He snatched up a copy of the International Herald Tribune.

But before he could even read the article, Shannon rushed over to him. “Jon, you won’t believe what’s happened!”

As they hurried to their room, Jon was treated to a string of wifely admonitions about a forgotten cell phone, as well as an inventory of the torrent of messages that had arrived for Jon in the last twenty-four hours, including Reuters from London, the Associated Press in New York, the U.S. Embassy in Athens, and the CIA. Marylou Kaiser and Richard Ferris had been calling every hour. Fortunately no one had revealed their whereabouts in Greece, except for phone numbers Marylou had been all but forced to give the government. Otherwise, the press would have besieged the Macedonia Palace.

“It’s been crazy, Jon,” Shannon said, “absolutely crazy.”

Jon shook his head in disbelief. “So what in the world is this all about?”

Shannon shrugged expressively and threw her hands up. “I don’t know what to say. Just read the papers. I picked up all the English newspapers I could find. They’re spread out on the bed.”

Inside the bedroom, Jon opened the blinds and turned on the light. For all her exasperation, Shannon did have them neatly arranged and crying to be read. On a top row lay the London Times, the Manchester Guardian, and the Financial Times. On the second row was another copy of the Herald Tribune from Paris, as well as overseas editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. All featured his photo on the front page (except for WSJ ’s traditional line-sketch version), but the anomaly hit Jon from the start: next to his photo in many of the papers was that of a Muslim in traditional headdress.

He picked up the Herald Tribune ’s version of the story. It was on the lower half of the front page. WORLD ISLAMIC LEADER CHALLENGES HARVARD PROFESSOR TO DEBATE Cairo (AP)-Dr. Abbas al-Rashid, regarded by most Muslims as the leading theologian in Islam, has challenged Jonathan P. Weber, well-known professor of Near Eastern studies at Harvard University, to a public debate on the topic “Christianity or Islam-Which Is More Credible?” Al-Rashid is the grand sheikh or imam at al-Azhar University in Cairo, a much-published author of books on Islam, especially his widely read Muhammad-A Life Blessed by Allah. “He is preeminent in Sunni Islam,” commented Haroun Nasir, president of the Islamic Council of New York. “I have no doubts whatever that he will win this debate.” Weber is the Reginald R. Dillon Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Harvard University, the founder of the Institute of Christian Origins in Cambridge, and a bestselling author of books on early Christianity. His Jesus of Nazareth, published several years ago, is in its thirty-second printing in the American edition, with twenty-nine foreign translations. One of these, the Arabic edition published several weeks ago in Cairo, contained an error in translation that brought him to the attention of the Islamic world, although the error has since been corrected. No summitlike debate between Christianity and Islam has taken place for twelve centuries. The last such was in the year 781, when Timothy I, Patriarch of the Assyrian Christian Church, held a celebrated debate with the third caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Mahdi. In an interview today in Cairo, Dr. al-Rashid stated, “I must apologize to Professor Weber that I was unable to reach him first with a personal invitation to such a debate. This news is therefore premature, the mistake of a press secretary at our university, who has since been disciplined. I do, however, welcome the possibility of debating Professor Weber, for whom I have great admiration.” Dr. Weber could not be reached for comment. At present his whereabouts are unknown, although reliable sources place him in Greece. The Associated Press promises full coverage of such a debate should it occur, especially in view of its controversial topic.

Jon put the paper down and stared vacantly across the room. He finally said, “This is hard to believe, Shannon. Here we thought al-Rashid was our friend. He gave that wonderful commencement address in Cairo. It helped take the fatwa off my head. Oh, oh, I forgot; the fatwa’s still there but harmless.”

“You hope,” she replied. “Maybe he still is our friend. Notice that he admires you.”

Jon nodded. Then he quickly scanned the other newspaper reports. Essentially they had the same story, though with different local commentary on the merits of the potential opponents.

The phone rang. Marylou Kaiser and Richard Ferris were calling from adjoining phones in Jon’s office at Harvard. Their relief in finally getting through to “the boss” was palpable. They gave a lengthy rundown on the U.S. reaction to the debate challenge, which consumed at least twenty minutes’ worth of transatlantic phone charges. At the close, Jon said, “Yes, we’ll have to fly back. I can’t tell you how much I hate to interrupt what we’re doing since we’re really on to something here.” He swept the papers aside in frustration and sat on the edge of the bed. Raking his fingers through his hair, he forced himself to calm down and focus on the matter at hand. “But let’s convene a meeting of the ICO executive committee for this coming Monday. Of course Osman al-Ghazali needs to be there too. Can you set everything up?” The two easily agreed. “Great! See you soon, then.”

When he had hung up, Shannon commented, “I guess that means you will accept the debate, then?”

“Is the pope Catholic, Shannon?”

“And that our great little tour of Greece is over?”