The Moses Legacy

Amidst all the noise and clatter in the room. Daniel almost missed the sound of his mobile phone ringing.

‘Hallo,’ he said, moving to the hallway so that he could conduct a proper conversation without having to strain to hear the other end of the line.

‘Hallo Danny,’ said a woman’s voice faintly.

‘Yes?’

‘It’s Gaby. Gaby Gusack.’ She didn’t normally call herself Gaby. But she made an exception for Danny – sometimes.

‘Oh, hi Gaby.’

Two memories swept over him in quick succession: the almost-forgotten fifteen-year-old girl with a crush on him from his days as a PhD student and the tall, supremely self-confident woman that he had worked with on a recent archaeological dig in Jerusalem.

‘Listen, I’m calling from the University of Cairo. I’m with Professor Akil Mansoor.’

‘The head of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority?’

‘That’s right. He’d like to speak to you.’

Daniel was familiar with some of Mansoor’s statements, as well as his deeds, and he hadn’t exactly warmed to him. But if Mansoor wanted to speak to him, then evidently there must be some matter of mutual interest, and Daniel had no desire to seem rude to anyone, let alone a fellow academic.

There was some movement at the other end and then a man’s voice came down the line.

‘This is Akil Mansoor. The reason I’m calling you is that we have found something out here that may be of interest to you and we’d like to fly you out here to take a look at it. It will all be at our expense of course, and first class, naturally.’

Daniel smiled at the attempt to bribe him with first-class travel. But he was intrigued and wanted to know more.

‘Can you give me some idea of what this is about?’

‘I would prefer to tell you when you get here. But I can promise you that it will be of considerable interest to you.’

Daniel felt awkward. ‘The problem is I have several lectures to give here and I also promised my nieces that I’d take them to Stonehenge as their birthday treat.’

‘It needn’t be a long visit. Possibly even just a day or two. We would be ready to reward you handsomely.’

‘It’s not a matter of money. It’s a matter of time. I mean, I can come, it’s just that it would be a lot easier if it were in a couple of weeks’ time.’

‘Unfortunately, time is of the essence. Besides, I think this is something you’d really be excited about if you saw it. I’d rather not say what it is over the phone, but I can tell you that it appears to be an artefact of considerable interest to Jewish history.’

Daniel sensed the excitement in Mansoor’s tone and he knew that this was a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer. The words could have been hyperbole, but the fact that a man of Mansoor’s position and prestige had called him out of the blue and extended such an invitation was telling in the extreme. And the invitation also had the imprimatur of Gaby behind it. That was the tie-breaker.

‘Okay,’ he said, intrigued.

Chapter 6

Akil Mansoor had been true to his word about providing first-class service to bring Daniel over to Egypt. As an internationally acclaimed scholar, Daniel was accustomed to flying. But he wasn’t used to changing his plans at short notice.

So now, Daniel was trying to relax in the First Class lounge of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. Bedazzled by its gold leaf adornments, he considered trying the aromatherapy treatment or shiatsu massage in the travel spa. But there wasn’t going to be enough time before boarding. His normal remedy for stress was a single glass of wine taken slowly and savoured, but he didn’t like drinking before a flight, so he stuck to mango juice.

The boarding call came quite soon after that. He followed the other priority passengers feeling somewhat calmer than he had been when he first arrived at the airport.

He didn’t know why now of all times, he should think of his ex-wife Charlotte. Perhaps because travelling by air reminded him of their near-constant travel between the two worlds of New York and London, bringing back a flood of memories and endless speculations about maybes and might-have-beens.

Once airborne, he decided that he wasn’t really interested in the in-flight entertainment. He always found it hard to follow the plotline of a movie on an aeroplane, but the one thing he could always do on a flight was read. So he took out his widescreen smartphone and carried on reading a legal thriller that he had started a few days ago, set in California but written by his favourite British author.

‘Is that the new one?’ asked the huge, muscular man in the seat next to him. He had piercing eyes that looked at Daniel in a way that was neither hostile nor friendly, but was certainly unwavering. He was going bald, but did not look more than about forty.

‘What, the book?’ asked Daniel, seeking to clarify the man’s question.

‘The reader.’

‘Er, yes,’ said Daniel, hoping to get back to the novel. ‘It’s like a smartphone, only better.’

‘Is it any good?’

‘I’ve only had it a couple of weeks. But it seems okay so far. It’s one of the new 3G ones. You can order the books direct to the reader in over a hundred countries.’

‘I was thinking of getting one myself. Not that I read much of the commercial trash that they’re spewing out these days. I’m more into academic books.’

Daniel wasn’t really interested in prolonging the conversation, but it would have been rude to seem too aloof. ‘What’s your field?’

‘Oh, I don’t really have a field as such. A jack of all trades but a master of none. I’m what would have been called a dilettante in the old days. Anything from the anthropology of the Balinese to Egyptology and ancient hieroglyphics. That’s why I’m off to Egypt, you know. A spot of amateur research. Not for any academic purpose, you understand. Just for fun. A cruise down the Nile, a visit to the Valley of the Kings and all that. I inherited a spot of money from my late aunt and that rather lets me indulge my passion. What about you?’

‘I’m a professor of ancient Semitic languages.’

‘Oh gosh, now I feel awfully embarrassed. Here I am, an enthusiastic amateur and you’re one of the intellectual giants of our time. You must seriously look down on people like me. A little learning is a dangerous thing and all that. The name’s Carter, Wally Carter. Pleased to meet such an eminent scholar.’

Daniel smiled. ‘Daniel Klein. And there’s nothing wrong with being an enthusiastic amateur.’

‘Could I have a look at that phone? Like I said, I’m thinking of getting one.’

Daniel hesitated a moment and then, realizing that this man could hardly run off with it, handed it over. The man appeared to press a few buttons and Daniel was about to say something when the man handed it back.

‘It looks pretty good. How’s the battery life?’

‘Reasonable.’

‘Listen, I know this is very cheeky but do you think I might take your number? I’d love to keep in touch.’

Daniel wasn’t keen but obliged, not wanting to be rude.

‘Well, I should stop bothering you and let you get back to your book.’

Daniel smiled with relief as he took his phone back and turned away. What he didn’t know was that with a few swift movements, the big man had downloaded an application that would enable him to track the phone – and Daniel with it.

Chapter 7

Joel awoke in the men’s communal tent, sweating heavily. He knew that at this time of year even the nights could get hot, but not like this. He was sweltering and itching.

What was it?

His arms, his legs, his torso. He hadn’t felt like this since he had chickenpox as a child. Except that this time it wasn’t just a scratching itch, it was a burning sensation.

He tried to look at his arm, to see what was causing the itch, but it was too dark. He had a torch by his bed, though he wasn’t sure if he should turn it on – it might disturb the others. But he had to know. Finally, plucking up the courage, he switched on the touch and shone it at his forearm.

And when he did so he got the shock of his life!

His arm was covered with boils. But these were not normal round boils. They were long, elongated trails of fiery red-orange on his skin, almost snake-like in appearance. And they were accompanied by a burning sensation. Joel realized that something was seriously amiss. The boils alone were frightening enough, but his head was also aching and his eyes watering. He realized that the sweat was not from the external heat and it was actually rather cool outside. The sweat came from his own body. He was going down with a fever.

He knew that there was a medical officer in the sick bay next to the soldiers’ hut and he decided to go there. Staggering out of bed, he threw on some clothes and began walking. But as he got to the entrance to the tent he fainted, emitting a cry that woke several of the others and raised the alarm.

An hour later, a helicopter arrived to take Joel to a hospital in Cairo. There was talk about a scorpion sting which the commanding officer tried to play down. He told them that according to the medic, Joel had chickenpox and it was more serious because he was an adult. However, he added, if they had already had it as children or been vaccinated against it, they had nothing to worry about.

Jane took advantage of the situation to make another visit to the latrine with her concealed mobile phone. However, instead of texting Senator Morris, this time she decided to call him and tell him what had happened.

‘Okay, now listen carefully,’ said the senator. ‘This is what I want you to do: you need to get a sample of his clothes—’

‘But they’ve flown him out to Cairo,’ Jane rasped into the phone.

‘Did they take all his things with him?’

‘Probably not.’

‘So most of his clothes are still in the tent.’

‘I guess.’

‘Okay. We only need a sample. Preferably something that he wore recently. Put it in a plastic bag and pack it with your things. I’ll give you instructions on how to get it out.’

‘Okay, Dad.’

She put the phone away before stepping out of the latrine… where she was confronted by a soldier.

‘Who were you talking to?’ he demanded.

Jane gasped in fright, fumbling mentally to find the right words to placate his suspicions. Then she noticed the red marks on his cheeks… and the sight made her realize that her own torso was itching.

Chapter 8

‘It’s definitely Proto-Sinaitic,’ said Daniel, struggling to contain his excitement.

Mansoor had pulled out all the stops to make sure that Daniel got the VIP treatment when he arrived at Cairo International Airport. He was fast-tracked through border control and customs at breakneck speed and brought to a luxury Cairo hotel in a stretch limousine. Now, after a good night’s sleep and a Mediterranean breakfast, Daniel was studying the carefully arranged fragments of stone as well as the pictures of them in various lighting conditions.

‘The strange thing, in my opinion, is that these stone fragments have smooth flat backs as well as flat fronts. And the overall thickness is no more than two inches. That suggests that they were small, portable stones and not just broken fragments of a large monument. This is the first time I’ve seen Proto-Sinaitic script on tablets like this. It’s usually found carved on local rocks in short one-line inscriptions, obviously designed to be seen by anyone who passes by. It’s basically a sort of simple graffiti by the untutored and uneducated.’

He looked up at Mansoor. Despite their mutual reservations, they had taken an instant liking to one another. It had been the firmness of the handshake by both men that had cemented the bond of trust between them.

‘Did you find this anywhere near the turquoise mines at Serabit el-Khadim?’

He noticed the fleeting eye contact between Mansoor and Gabrielle.

‘Where the original inscriptions were found, you mean? No. They were found about 130 kilometres east of that.’

‘So that also makes it pretty far from the Temple of Hathor.’

‘Hathor?’ said Gabrielle excitedly. ‘The Egyptian cow goddess? Why do you ask?’

‘I was just thinking about the story of the Golden Calf,’ said Daniel. ‘You know… when Moses went up Mount Sinai and the Israelites got restless and built a golden calf and started worshipping it.’

He noticed that Gabrielle’s excitement was growing. At first he thought she was just happy to be working with him again, but he sensed that there was more to it than that.

‘We were wondering,’ Mansoor asked gingerly, ‘if there was any possibility that this could be an early version of a known Hebrew text.’

Daniel spoke his next words very slowly, sensing what was coming. ‘Which known text?’

There was a long pause before Mansoor replied. ‘The Ten Commandments.’

In the silence that followed, a hundred emotions swept through Daniel’s head. It was as if they were waiting for him to laugh. But laughter was the last thing on his mind. He chose his next words carefully.

‘I noticed the word El several times – that’s the Hebrew word for God. And I also noticed a few instances of the word Yahowa or Yehova – which is now usually read as Jehovah, the sacred name of God in Judeo-Christian religion.’

‘And?’

‘Well, that at least opens the possibility that it’s a text of the early Israelites,’ Daniel concluded.

‘There’s no evidence that the early Israelites worshipped Jehovah,’ said Mansoor. ‘The only ancient group known to worship a god called Jehovah were a nomadic group called the Shasu of Yahowa.’

‘But there is evidence that the Israelites were descended from a larger group called the Habiru,’ said Gabrielle. ‘From whom we get the name Hebrews. And they could be the same people as the Shasu of Yahowa.’

‘The Habiru was a term used for roving bandits,’ said Mansoor. ‘The Shasu were shepherds.’

‘Some people think the names may have been used interchangeably,’ Gabrielle pressed on.

‘But we have graphic depictions of both people,’ Mansoor replied firmly, ‘and they wore different styles of clothes.’

‘That still doesn’t answer the question of whether this could be the Ten Commandments,’ said Daniel, trying to get the discussion back on track. ‘And to answer that I’d need to compare it to the text in a Hebrew copy of the Bible.’

They made their way to the university library where Daniel lost no time in studying a photo of the assembled stones side by side with the Ten Commandments, looking for any signs of the recognizable words El and Jehovah with similar spacings. After a few minutes he looked up, disappointed.

‘I can’t find any sign of a match,’ he said. ‘Although the words El and Jehovah appear in both, they don’t appear in the same places. That proves that the text on the stones is something other than the Ten Commandments.’

He noticed that Gabrielle’s mood mirrored his own. Mansoor on the other hand appeared to take it more philosophically.

‘Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.’

‘Could I ask why you thought it was the Ten Commandments? I mean apart from the fact that it’s fragments from two tablets and they were broken.’

‘Because of—’ Gabrielle started. But she broke off in response to a look from Mansoor. ‘Because of where it was found.’

Daniel was about to ask Gabrielle to explain when Mansoor got a call which interrupted their conversation.

‘Yes?… A mobile phone?… But how did she?… You were supposed to have searched them… No, we don’t want any trouble with the Americans… How many of them?… And the soldiers?… And what does the doctor say?… Quarantine? On whose decision?’

Chapter 9

‘First of all, I have some good news. Carmichael is no longer a problem.’

Senator Morris was addressing the professor and Audrey Milne in their regular meeting room in the Capitol Building.

‘How sure can we be that a copy of his manuscript won’t pop up somewhere down the line?’

‘Goliath didn’t just dispose of Carmichael and the woman, he—’

‘Woman?’ echoed Audrey nervously.

‘He has a maid – had a maid – who apparently doubled as his secretary.’

‘And he killed her too?’

There was a sharp edge in Audrey’s tone. The senator wasn’t sure if it was chiding or fearful. Either way he didn’t like it, but he wanted to keep her onside.

‘She was there at the time. Apparently she was his de facto carer. Also, as I said, she was his secretary. That is, she typed the paper for him. That means she knew about it.’

‘But what about copies?’ the professor reminded him.

‘He wiped the computer and burnt down the house. Unless they sent a copy somewhere else, the only copies left are the ones with you.’

‘But how is this going to help us end the vile dominion of the Semitic interlopers?’ asked the professor.

‘Carmichael’s paper can’t. But what it revealed certainly can. It appears that he was right: the sixth plague can make a resurgence.’

‘What do you mean?’

He told them what Jane had told him about Joel and about his instructions to her to get a sample of his clothes.

‘You don’t really think…’ The professor trailed off.

‘It was an article of faith among the Israelites that they were spared from the plagues,’ said the senator. ‘But after this young man on the dig has become ill, it looks like Carmichael was right. The Israelites were stricken by the plagues too. And we can use that to our advantage.’

Audrey sat there in silence. It wasn’t until the meeting had ended that she made her way to her car and drove safely out of the area before making a phone call. There were three or four rings before it was picked up at the other end.

‘Israeli Embassy.’

Chapter 10

‘We’re here,’ said Mansoor.

They got out near what seemed like an army camp in the middle of nowhere. Daniel looked around. He wasn’t exactly in awe of this environment – he had seen sights far more spectacular than this, both in Egypt and elsewhere. But in the dry desert heat and with the desolate expanses around him, he felt the sense of humility that a harsh or hostile environment can induce in a man.

‘Where are we?’ asked Daniel.

‘We’re at a mountain called Hashem el-Tarif.’

‘Which some people believe to be the real Mount Sinai,’ said Daniel, to show his understanding.

‘Exactly,’ Mansoor confirmed.

They had flown into Sharm el-Sheikh from Cairo International Airport and driven north to this spot near the Israeli border. Now Daniel was looking in the direction of the cordoned-off dig site.

‘And that’s where they found the fragments?’

‘Yes,’ Gabrielle and Mansoor replied in unison.

Gabrielle pointed to the mountain.

‘There’s a cleft over there from which a man’s voice can carry to this whole area – it’s a natural amphitheatre. You could have a group of people down here and a man could speak in a moderately raised voice from up there and be heard by everyone.’

Daniel looked around, trying to imagine the Israelites gathered here, listening to their teacher.

‘And there’s no possibility of being allowed to take a look at the dig site itself?’ asked Daniel.

‘We’re lucky that we can even come here at all.’ Mansoor’s tone had taken on an irascible edge. ‘I had to move heaven and earth to get the Minister of Defence to allow the dig in the first place and then when the food poisoning broke out, the Minister of Health was informed before I was. He contacted the Defence Minister and between them they decided to close it down – at least until we’ve established the cause.’

Daniel wasn’t sure why an outbreak of food poisoning should render the site a no-go area. But he was a guest in this man’s country and one of the things he had learned in his field was to respect the laws and customs of one’s hosts. It was an honour that they had showed him what they thought to be the original Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments may have been written. Now they were showing him, if not the dig site, then at least the surrounding region.

His reason for wanting to see the site was that he thought that it might give him some clues as to what was on the stones. Even if it wasn’t the Ten Commandments, it was the largest single extract of text in the ancient script that he had ever seen. That made it significant whatever it was.

‘Let’s go up the mountain,’ Mansoor suggested.

They walked up a slope to a security checkpoint manned by armed soldiers. It was obvious that the soldiers recognized Mansoor and Gabrielle, but they viewed Daniel with caution if not suspicion. After a few words in Arabic from Mansoor, Daniel was waved through with the others, without so much as a cursory search.

It was a tiring trudge up the mountain, but as they neared the summit, Daniel noticed something else. ‘What are those?’ he asked, pointing to some pits.

Gabrielle nodded approvingly at Daniel’s perspicacity. ‘Those are the remnants of ancient open-pit fires. The sort of fires people might have lit to warm themselves on cold desert nights, or to cook their food. There are also a number of ancient graves and shrines on this site.’

Daniel shook his head. ‘But according to the biblical narrative, only Moses went up the mountain. The rest stayed at the foot, so you wouldn’t expect to find campfires on the mountain, let alone graves and shrines.’

‘That’s only if you take the Bible literally, Daniel.’

He noticed Gabrielle’s cheeky grin when she said this. She’d always had that look when she won a round in their intellectual sparring – even when she was a teenager. And of course she was right. He was supposed to be a serious scholar not a sycophantic follower of religious dogma. Furthermore, the biblical account was certainly confused as to the order of events. In fact…

‘Daniel?’

Gabrielle’s voice cut into his cogitation. There was a note of concern in her tone. He realized that his train of thought had found expression on his face and she was alerted by it.

‘I’ve just had a thought. We may have been looking in the wrong place.’

‘Meaning?’ Mansoor prompted.

‘In the Bible, I mean. About the text on the stones. The story of the Ten Commandments is actually somewhat convoluted. It starts off in Exodus 20 with God giving a series of commandments orally to all the Israelites, amidst smoke and thunder. Those commandments are the ones we all learnt as children. You know, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, etc. You could call them the official Ten Commandments. But in fact nowhere in the Bible does it actually say that those are the Ten Commandments. Then after that, the Bible continues by stating that the Israelites were so afraid of all that smoke and thunder that they pleaded with Moses to go up to the top of the mountain and get the rest of God’s law and bring it down to them. So Moses goes up the mountain and God tells him a whole long list of laws, called the Testament of Moses, which Moses duly writes down on two tablets of stone.’

‘So you’re saying that the tablets of stone might actually contain this Testament of Moses, not the Ten Commandments?’ asked Mansoor.

‘That’s what it says in the Bible. But, there’s a problem with that, because the Testament of Moses is much too long to be written down on a couple of tablets of stone. It would have needed more like a dozen tablets to record that much detail.’

‘Then what could it be?’ asked Mansoor.

‘The clue to that comes from what happened next. According to the Bible, the Israelites were getting restless over the amount of time Moses was spending up the mountain. They thought Jehovah had abandoned them. So they melted down all the gold they had brought with them from Egypt and turned it into the Golden Calf, to worship the cow goddess, a local god of the region. And when Moses finally came down from the mountain, he saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf and blew his top – smashing the tablets in his anger. Then after he calmed down a bit, he got the Israelites to repent for their sins and then he went back up the mountain with another pair of blank stone tablets to get the commandments all over again.’

‘But he didn’t break the second lot of stone tablets,’ said Gabrielle.

‘No, those were the ones that ended up in the temple in Jerusalem. But let’s get back to what happened at Mount Sinai. When Moses went up the mountain a second time, in Exodus 34, he actually got an alternative version of the Ten Commandments. Not completely different: the first and second commandments are the same – and the fourth commandment of the old ones becomes the fifth in the new version. But the others are different.’

‘So are you saying that it’s those alternative commandments that are the real Ten Commandments?’ asked Gabrielle.

Daniel’s eyes were wide with excitement as he spoke. ‘Exactly. The Bible even says that it’s the commandments in Exodus 34 that are the Ten Commandments. Whereas the official Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 were never referred to as such. Also, it says that these alternative Ten Commandments were written on tablets of stone. On the other hand, the official Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 were never written in stone. They were merely spoken out loud by God.’

Mansoor was leaning forward keenly. ‘But if that is the case, then the Ten Commandments that you tried to compare to the stone fragments back in Cairo were the wrong ones.’

‘Exactly. What I should have compared to the stones was the alternative Ten Commandments – the ones in Exodus 34.’

And with that, Daniel opened his bag and took out the copy of the Hebrew Bible that he had brought with him, as well as a photo of the assembled stone fragments. Finding a perch on a large rock, he sat down and began making a comparison while Mansoor and Gabrielle looked on in silence.

‘Ki loh tisht-hazeh le’El aher ki Yehova Qana shemoh El qana hu. “For you shall not bow to another God because Jehovah, jealous is his name, a jealous God is he.” Now, if we look at the first line on one of the stone tablets, which is just about visible, it has the word El, the generic name for God, which we recognize by the symbols for the ox and the shepherd’s crook – that is, a silent placeholder for a vowel and the consonant “L”. Then a few words later we see God’s personal name of Jehovah, shown by the hand symbol, followed by the matchstick man, then the peg symbol, then the matchstick man again. That’s like Y-H-V-H. Then a few words later we see the name El. And the spacings all correspond neatly to the text in the Hebrew Bible.’

‘So it’s a perfect match,’ said Gabrielle excitedly.

‘Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. Let’s see if we can find anything else. Again, using the two recognized words of El and Jehovah, if we look just above the middle of the second tablet, we see the name Jehovah, the word El and also …’ His inflection was rising as he felt the growing excitement. ‘…the word Yisral, which appears to be an early form of the name Israel.’

By now, even Mansoor’s hitherto sceptical eyes were lit up with the fire of enthusiasm. ‘Does that mean what I think it means?’

Daniel was pleased to hear emotion in Mansoor’s tone for once and he was unable to conceal the passion in his own. ‘It means we’ve gone some way to deciphering Proto-Sinaitic script. But more important than that… it means that what you’ve got back in Cairo are the remnants of the original Mosaic tablets!’