Robert Lyndon: Hawk Quest

‘I don’t see why the Church would reject the gospel because Thomas claims that Jesus was a great scholar and teacher. The opposite, I would have thought.’

‘That’s not the only way in which it differs from the Biblical accounts. Thomas calls Jesus “the Son of Man” rather than the “Son of God”. That’s an important distinction, one that challenges the belief that Jesus was truly divine. Another thing. Thomas refers to Jesus as chrestos , spelled with an e , rather than christos , with an i . The two words are pronounced the same but mean different things. Christos with an i means the “anointed one” — the Messiah sent by God to proclaim the Second Coming. Chrestos with an e simply means “good”.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘One of my uncles is a priest. For a time I was destined for the Church.’

‘Well, I’m no book scholar, but it seems to me that you’re splitting hairs.’

‘That’s what theologians do. They’ve been doing it for a thousand years and the result is the faith as practised today, down to the last liturgical detail. Anything that doesn’t fit the official version has no place in the canon. The schism between Rome and Constantinople is a good example. Do you know what caused it?’

Vallon thought. ‘I have no idea.’

‘The main doctrinal issue concerns a single word, filioque , which the Roman Church added to the Nicene Creed. It means “and the son” and appears in the affirmation “And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.” What it does is emphasise that Jesus, the Son, is of equal divinity with God, the Father. The Eastern Church won’t accept the addition, concentrating on the supremacy of God the Father. For five hundred years they’ve been arguing about that word.’

‘So the Church only hears what it wants to hear.’

‘Precisely. It would take an enormous weight of evidence for the authorities to alter the accepted gospel story by so much as a jot. One book discovered by adventurers in Anatolia wouldn’t be enough.’

‘Not for Rome perhaps. The Greek Church might be more receptive.’

Hero shook his head. ‘Whatever their other differences, both Churches would treat any book that emphasised Christ’s human nature as a loathsome heresy.’

‘So if we still had the gospel and tried to sell it, we might be burned as heretics.’

‘I don’t think they’d go that far. They’d probably burn the gospel, though.’

Vallon plodded on in silence for a while. ‘Hero, if that was meant to console me, it hasn’t worked.’

‘I thought you’d want to know.’

‘You only read a few passages. Cosmas had the opportunity to study the entire book. He was a learned man. He must have noticed the same problems as you, yet it didn’t quench his desire to get his hands on it.’

‘He sought the truth above all things. Perhaps he found in Thomas some revelation that would shake Christendom to its foundations.’

‘Such as the secrets that Thomas said would strike fire from the rocks.’

‘Possibly. Or it might have been something else, some revelation concerning Jesus’s death and resurrection.’

‘Like what?’

‘I’m not sure I dare speak it aloud. It’s blasphemous.’

‘Don’t worry about the fate of my soul. Come on, spit it out.’

‘Very well.’ Hero composed his thoughts. ‘Several sources say that Thomas evangelised in India and made many converts on the coast. Cosmas met some of the communities and he visited Thomas’s shrine near a city called Madras. These Christians call themselves “the Christians of St Thomas”, but Cosmas told me that they belong to the Nestorian sect.’

‘I know little about them except that the Latin Church denounces them as heretics.’

‘Of the most damnable kind. Nestorius lived four centuries later than Thomas, and like him had doubts about Jesus’s divinity. Even though he was the Patriarch of Constantinople, he preached that Christ had two distinct natures, one divine, one human, and that mankind would find redemption not in Christ’s divinity, but in Jesus’s human life of temptation and suffering. The Orthodox Church found Nestorius’s humanisation of Jesus scandalous and at a council called by the pope they stripped him of his office. His teachings spread, though, east into Persia and on into India. I think the Christian communities there embraced them so readily because they were very similar to the doctrine taught in the Gospel of Thomas.’

Vallon turned it over in his mind. ‘But that wouldn’t shake Christendom. Where’s the revelation?’

‘I really don’t think I should speculate any further.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake!’

‘What could it have been that made Thomas doubt Jesus’s divinity?’

‘Don’t ask me. I know my creed and paternoster and that’s the limit of my learning.’

‘There’s a clue in the Bible, in the Gospel of St John, where he describes how the resurrected Christ showed himself to all the disciples except Thomas. Remember?’

‘Of course! Doubting Thomas. He refused to believe that Christ had risen from the dead until he saw Him in the flesh and felt his wounds with his hands.’ Vallon gave Hero a sharp look. ‘He doubted, and then Jesus banished his doubts. We’re no further forward.’

Hero didn’t answer.

Vallon glanced at the sky as though he suspected a heavenly eavesdropper. He leaned slightly towards Hero and dropped his voice. ‘Are you saying that Thomas didn’t see the risen Christ?’

‘I’m saying that if he witnessed the resurrection, he could have had no reason to doubt Jesus’s divinity.’

Vallon dropped his voice further still. ‘You mean Thomas says that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? That he was mortal like any man?’

‘It’s speculation, nothing more.’

Vallon leaned back and crossed himself. ‘Dark waters. Well, we’ll never have a chance to go deeper. By now the gospel will be ashes.’

‘I’m not so sure. I think the Seljuks will hide it away in a library. A thousand years have passed since it was written. Who knows? A thousand years from now, it might surface again.’

The end of the lake came in sight. Vallon heard Hero sigh, saw him shake his head.

‘What’s troubling you now?’

Hero grimaced. ‘I loved Richard, feared and hated Drogo and for Walter felt nothing but contempt. But I can’t help being distressed at the thought of their parents waiting in Northumberland for the return of their sons, not knowing that none of them will come home again. As much as I hate the prospect, I feel it’s my duty to write and bring their futile waiting to a close.’

Vallon had nothing to add on the matter. ‘I was recalling Aaron’s pre — diction that our enterprise was doomed to failure. He was right.’ Vallon frowned. ‘Nearly right. We’re no worse off than when we started out.’

Hero snapped out of his musings. ‘We’re better off by far. We have enough silver to take us to Constantinople, and we still have Prester John’s letter.’

Vallon’s own spirits lifted. ‘Do you really believe that he dines at a gold and amethyst table and sleeps in a sapphire bed and rides into battle perched on a golden castle borne by an elephant?’

Hero laughed. ‘I suspect that his royal sublimity has stretched the truth a little.’

‘The priest-king’s a weaver of fantasies, peddling dreams to feed our craving for the unknown. He probably dwells in a mud fort and eats porridge off bare boards.’

‘There’s only one way to find out.’

Vallon eyed him asquint. ‘I would have thought that you’d done enough travelling. Haven’t you followed enough wilderness rivers and crossed enough deserts?’