Adam Palmer - The Moses Legacy

Mansoor picked up on this.

‘The idea that it was a separate ancient work that got written into the biblical narrative fits in very neatly with the carbon dating of the papyrus. 1600 BC would put it well before the traditional dating of the Israelite exodus. But more importantly, it would also fit in very neatly with the volcanic eruption of Santorini round about that time.’

‘Why would the eruption of Santorini have anything to do with the parting of the waters in Egypt?’ asked Daniel.

‘Because according to oceanographers, the eruption of Santorini would have produced a tsunami that would have reached the shores of Egypt and would have been especially pronounced in a shallow body of water that had an outlet to the sea. And when a tsunami strikes, because of the way waves move, the first thing that happens is that the water flows out, thereby creating a dry area which then becomes flooded when the water rushes back.’

‘Of course!’ said Daniel. ‘And that perfectly fits the biblical account of the parting of the waters, followed by the deluge.’

‘Are there any other points of comparison in the text?’ Mansoor followed up.

‘Well, if we look down to lines five and six in the biblical text, using the common word El or God as our point of comparison, we see, “ Zeh Elohi veAnveihu.” This is my God and I will live with him, or it could be translated as “I will beautify him”, depending on how you understand the problematic word anvei. Then the next line is “ Elohei avi veAmromemenhu,” which means: “God of my father and I will exalt him.” Now if we turn to lines five and six of the papyrus, again we see the letters for El written as the beginning of a longer word, and in just the right places, relative to the length and word spacing on the lines.’

He looked over at Mansoor for approval. Mansoor nodded.

‘Okay, now if we go down to the next two lines in the biblical passage, we see that they begin with the name Jehovah. And again the same is true of the papyrus.’

‘So it’s looking like a match,’ said Gabrielle.

‘It’s beginning to,’ Daniel confirmed.

‘So does that mean,’ asked Gabrielle, ‘that by comparing the papyrus text to the version of the Song of the Sea in the Bible you can use it like the Rosetta Stone to decipher the ancient language?’

‘Basically yes,’ said Daniel. But he realized that the downer was that this papyrus could not be the one that Harrison Carmichael had translated – the one about the plague. Assuming that his mentor really had translated a papyrus that made reference to the plague, he still had to find it.

But where?

‘I guess all we need are some more samples of the ancient language to translate.’

It was a long shot, but he noticed a flicker in the face of the SCA chief.

‘I have some more good news for you,’ said Mansoor. ‘While you were away, I did some checking in the archives and it appears that there are a few other samples of the ancient script that haven’t received all that much publicity.’

Daniel’s eyes lit up. Did Mansoor unwittingly have a papyrus that described the plagues?

Once again, Goliath was afflicted by a feeling of failure. Senator Morris had told him that it was going to be a difficult task, but had been sure that he could pull it off. All he had to do was get the clothes and leave. But instead he had left empty-handed and a nurse dead.

Now, sitting alone in his hotel room, he was turning over the events in his mind, feeling something that he didn’t often feel: guilt.

He didn’t like killing the innocent, even though he knew that God would take them to his bosom in the next life. It was only the wicked that he enjoyed killing.

He remembered how, after he was released from prison, he had killed the lawyer who had represented him at the murder trial over the killing of the rabbi. He would have liked to have killed the lawyer who represented his wife in the divorce, but he was already dead of natural causes, so he decided to kill the lawyer who had defended him instead.

It wasn’t that he blamed the lawyer for his imprisonment. His lawyer had in fact done very well to get him off with manslaughter. But he was Jewish and he was a parasite, making his money off other people’s misery. It was only because of money that the lawyer had represented him in the first place.

The lawyer was no different from a hooker: he went with anyone as long as he was paid. Today it might be Goliath, tomorrow it might be some crooked Jewish banker who had embezzled billions of other people’s money. To the lawyer, it was all the same.

So Goliath had had no qualms about killing him. He wasn’t even troubled by the fact that he had killed him in front of his five-year-old son. The kid would probably grow up just like his father. He had intended to kill the kid too, but the kid had screamed and that alerted other people. He had to flee before any witnesses saw him. Just as he had to flee from the hospital. Witnesses could land him in prison.

His thoughts were interrupted by the phone.

‘Hallo.’

It was the senator.

‘Can you talk?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ve just heard a news item from England about a curator at the British Museum.’

‘What?’ asked Goliath, confused.

‘Never mind. The point is, it’s given me another idea. It still involves getting a sample of clothes, but from Daniel Klein and the Gusack woman.’

He explained the details. When he had finished, Goliath asked a question.

‘What should I do with the people, once I’ve got the clothes?’

‘Kill them.’

‘This is the famous Mernepteh stele,’ said Mansoor. ‘Made of granite, it was by far the largest inscribed stone ever found, not just by Flinders Petrie, but by anyone. The stone was actually stolen by Mernepteh from the mortuary temple of another pharaoh who had already used the other side. But it was the proclamation that Mernepteh inscribed on it that makes it one of the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt.’

Daniel stood there staring at the huge stone monument in awe, flanked by Mansoor and Gabrielle. His lips moved, but no words came out of his mouth. It was as if there were no words that could describe the magnificence of what he beheld. Lit by special lighting in an otherwise dark area of the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, it stood more than ten feet high and five feet wide, dwarfing those who stood in its imposing presence.

Daniel craned his neck to look up to the graphic image at the top. It showed the pharaoh and his consort standing with various others in attendance.

‘You feel it, don’t you?’ said Mansoor.

Daniel saw a mocking smile on the Egyptian’s face and he knew exactly what he meant.

‘Yes,’ said Daniel, subconsciously muting his voice in token of the humility that he felt before this imposing monument.

‘Mernepteh used this stone to proclaim his victories over Libya.’

‘Or his father’s victories,’ Gabrielle added.

‘True,’ Mansoor confirmed. ‘Considering that his father, Ramesses the Second, ruled for sixty-six years and lived for ninety, it’s far more likely that the father was the architect of the victories commemorated in this stele than his son, who ruled for no more than ten.’

Mansoor started reading out loud. ‘He drove back the Libyans who walked in Egypt, Fear of Egypt is great in their hearts… Their best fighters were left abandoned, Their legs made no stand except to flee, Their bowmen abandoned their bows.’

‘I notice it’s written right to left,’ said Daniel.

The normal way to write hieroglyphics was left to right, but they could be written either way.