Adam Palmer - The Moses Legacy

Daniel was puzzled by this account. ‘So why didn’t Neferhotep bring the complaint himself? Before he was killed by this “enemy”, I mean?’

‘Well, first of all, like I said, there may be an element of exaggeration in the complaint itself. But secondly, Neferhotep did bring a complaint against Paneb to the vizier – not the corrupt vizier, but his honest predecessor. According to the papyrus, the vizier who heard the complaint upheld the claims and ordered that Paneb be flogged for his crimes. But Paneb then appealed the ruling and the appeal came before this Mossy or Mussi.’

‘And who was this Mossy or Mussi?’ asked Daniel.

‘We don’t know who he was. But one thing we can be sure of is that he must have been someone of high enough rank to veto the local vizier. One suggestion is that it was Amenmesse who ruled part of Egypt during his power struggle with Sethi the Second. Another is that it was someone called Messuwy, who had previously been the pharaoh’s viceroy in Nubia. Yet another theory is that they were one and the same – although there is some vigorous debate about this.’

‘Well, from what you’ve said, Gaby, this text suggests that it was Amenmesse.’

‘Yes, but the name Mossy sounds like Messuwy. So taken as a whole it could also be interpreted as meaning that they were one and the same. Anyway, go on!’

Daniel turned to the second tablet, which lay between them on top of the remaining two. He switched on the car light to illuminate it better and continued reading. When my brother Sethi heard of this he was angry with me and wanted to kill me. So I fled to a place nearby where I came face to face with the one true God, whose face cannot be seen. He appeared to me in fire on this sacred ground and revealed his true name to me and it was Jehovah. And he commanded me to end the cruelty against Israel. So awed was I by this wondrous place that I engraved words in the writing style of Israel upon the stones nearby.

‘Wadi el-hol!’ said Gabrielle.

The name sounded familiar to Daniel. ‘The place where they found an early sample of the ancient script?’

‘Yes! Remember… it’s only twenty miles from the workers’ village. He must have run away when he realized that the pharaoh was after him.’

Suddenly Daniel found himself gripped by the excitement of a profound realization. ‘Then this phrase “appeared to me in fire” must be a reference to the burning bush… the burning bush which Moses saw after he ran away from…’

‘What?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘After he killed the Egyptian taskmaster who was beating an Israelite slave!’

‘Holy shit!’ said Gabrielle. ‘It really happened… maybe not quite the way the Bible described it, but it really happened.’

There were tears in Daniel’s eyes.

‘And Mossy must have been…’

‘Moses,’ Gabrielle muttered, barely able to raise her voice above a whisper.

‘Excuse me, I know this is going to sound awfully silly, but I was looking for some friends of mine. I was supposed to meet them here, but I got a bit delayed.’

Sarit was talking to a woman behind the counter at the Petra visitor centre.

‘We get so many people passing through here.’

She had been about to tell the woman the names of her ‘friends’ – but the initial response made it clear that this would serve no useful purpose.

‘One of them is quite tall.’ She made a gesture with a raised arm and right-angled hand to indicate height.

‘Oh, wait a minute, yes, I remember them. They went with Sheikh Ibrahim.’

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?’

‘Yes. They wanted a special tour with someone who really knows the history.’

‘You mean like a private tour?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, do you know where they went?’

‘Not really. I mean, knowing Sheikh Ibrahim it’ll be well off the beaten track.’

‘But you don’t know where.’

‘I’m afraid not. But I can give you his mobile phone number.’

‘Oh, er… thank you.’

She hadn’t expected that. Less than a minute later she was outside trying to get a signal. She had to move a few yards away from the building, but eventually she got one. She called the number. It rang for such a long time that she expected it to cut out and transfer to voicemail. But eventually a man answered.

‘Hallo.’

The voice sounded rasping, like he was in some place where he couldn’t speak freely, like a church or a library.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?’

‘Who is this?’

‘My name is Siobhan. You don’t know me but I’m-’

‘Help me,’ the voice croaked.

Sarit froze. The pain in the voice sounded real.

‘Help me,’ the voice said again, in a muted rasp. It sounded like he was struggling to speak.

‘Who is this?’

‘Ib… Ibrahim.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Snake Monument.’

She tried to ask him more questions, but was greeted by silence. She realized that she would have to go there, with or without a guide.

Daniel had recovered his composure and was reading out loud. I returned to the city and claimed the throne of Egypt and fought against my brother Sethi. And the Jehovah-ites helped me against the might of Egypt.

‘Jehovah-ites?’ Gabrielle repeated.

‘It says Yahowa da’im. That could be translated as the ones who knew Jehovah. But it could also be Yehudim: the Judah-ites, which in English is translated as Jews.’

‘What else does it say?’

He carried on translating. But my brother’s army was too strong and so we fled into the desert: Israel and the Jehovah-ites.

‘So you’ve got two peoples joining forces: the Jehovah-ites or Judah-ites… and Israel.’

‘That’s what it appears to be saying.’ And we celebrated our freedom like the sed of Pharaoh.

He broke off. ‘I don’t know if I pronounced that right.’

‘You did,’ said Gabrielle. ‘The sed festival was a great feast that the pharaohs had to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary – those that had such an anniversary, that is. Then they had other sed festivals every three or four years thereafter. Ramesses the Second, who ruled for sixty-six years, had fourteen sed festivals.’

‘And what were they? I mean, how did they celebrate?’

‘The sed festivals were essentially great banquets for the royal court with sumptuous food and singing by choirs consisting of the royal wives. They also had singers from the temples and performing acrobats and the whole thing was officiated over by the daughters of Asian princes whose main job was to pour drinks for the pharaoh four times into his royal goblet… Daniel?’

He realized that the look on his face had arrested her exposition midstream. ‘Say that again.’

‘I said, the festival of sed was a-’

‘No, the bit about the drinks.’

She blinked, uncertain of what he was getting at. ‘They were poured by Asian princesses who-’

‘No, I mean how many times?’

‘What – how many times did they pour the drinks? Four, according to the descriptions in the ancient texts.’

‘ Four drinks.’

‘Yes,’ Gabrielle replied, still unsure of what Daniel was getting at.

‘And it’s called the festival of sed?’

‘ Yes! Look, what’s all this about? What’s so special about four drinks? As opposed to three… or any other number.’

‘The Jews celebrate the Exodus at Passover-’

‘Yes, I know that!’

‘No, what I mean is that Passover starts with a festive family dinner accompanied by a religious service at the dining table called a seider. That means order, in both biblical and modern Hebrew, because things have to be done in a particular order.’