Once the flight was in the air, Louisa’s mood lightened. She knew Chris and Carl were probably well versed in disguising their intentions from others, but she and Justin were not. Their travel through the back alleys of the airport was tense, but thankfully uneventful. Finally, they boarded their flight; first class to Jerusalem.
As soon as Louisa sunk into her leather-upholstered seat, she kicked off her the shoes and began to rub the aches from her bruised foot. Male hipbones were harder than she imagined.
Chris was trying his best to look asleep in the chair next to her, but Louisa could tell he was watching. Good. Let him watch.
Louisa rested her feet against the chair in front and began to move her hands in long, exaggerated strokes from her ankles to her the lip of her skirt. As she finished and leaned back in her seat, she let out an involuntary giggle.
Chris was not even her type. Louisa went for the academic, a man whose passion came from what he said and not what he did. Nevertheless, something about Chris, his confidence or the way he was unflustered by even the most dangerous of situations, intrigued her like no one she had ever met. He was an unknown, a puzzle to solve. Once this was over, she would make it her business to unlock his secrets.
Trying not to make it look like she was interested in his restrained ogling, Louisa turned her attention to Justin and Carl who were talking about the reasons behind their journey to Israel, and ordered a miniature bottle of wine from an attendant.
Louisa had a basic grasp of the contents of the Bible and of ancient history, but nothing on the level these two were discussing. It was akin to gibberish. Supposedly, the book of Genesis held the answers and a strange reference to the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve.
It appeared that even the Bible knew snakes and serpents were different things. Most of Louisa’s recollections of the Genesis story of the serpent came from works of art; most clearly showing a snake, perhaps a python, wrapped around an apple tree. However, that image seemed to be a fallacy.
“The real answer is there is no description of what the serpent looked like.” said Carl, leaning over to Justin. “Although we can assume quite a few things from the text because of the way the story plays out. All this information comes from Genesis three. It starts by saying the serpent is more devious than any beast of the field. It is interesting to note that the Bible only uses this phrase to talk about what we would now call farm animals; cows, pigs, bulls, sheep etcetera. It goes on to have the serpent talk to Eve, which in itself says something about the difference between serpents and snakes, as most snakes can’t talk as far as I know. Then the serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, after it tells her she won’t die as God said she would, and will gain the knowledge of good and evil if she does. Therefore, she complies and then convinces Adam to do the same. The interesting thing is this: Who does the story show is lying to Adam and Eve? Is it the serpent or God?”
“Oh yeah, it’s God who lies to them.” said Justin, catching on. “God doesn’t want Adam and Eve to be educated, so he lies about the fruit killing them; because it doesn’t.”
“I’ve used it at religious rallies before, asking hysterical, right-wing Christians why they are wearing clothes and sending their kids to college. Most of them don’t realise God actually wanted everyone to be naked and uneducated. They forget it was the evil, treacherous serpent that gave us teaching, arts, music, and medicine! Foul creature that it was!”
Louisa giggled, imagining how rich, white Americans reacted as this muscular African-American delivered his sting with such erudition.
“Next thing you know, Adam and Eve are making clothes, and the story gets almost comedic.” continued Carl. “Adam and Eve gain the knowledge of good and evil, then become scared of God and go hide. Why? Is the story saying they are scared of God because they can now tell he’s evil? You wouldn’t be afraid of a good and forgiving God, would you? It also says that when they are hiding, God has to call out to Adam to find out where he is. This is the funniest moment in the Bible for me! God, the omnipotent creator of the universe, can’t find a man in a garden hidden by a tree and a fig leaf!”
“It’s remarkably funny to think that some people believe this actually happened.” said Justin, laughing.
“That’s not funny kid. That’s really damn scary if you ask me.” said Carl, a seriousness flashing in his eyes. “Especially when you think the people who believe this trash have control over our laws and what gets taught in our schools.”
Louisa hated to admit it, but she thought the same way. She had never been terribly religious. Even though her parents were Catholic, her limited forays into her beliefs ended the day she went to medical school. Studying that hard for seven years left little time for spiritual pursuits. Not that she minded. If the news said anything about modern religion, it was that the fervent zeal of Islamic nations was being matched, if not bettered, by Christian fundamentalism emerging from the United States. Religion, as touted today, did not come across as a spiritual pursuit at all. It came across as it was, a warzone, and that made her want no part of it.
“God then finds out they’ve eaten from the tree; his omniscience should have told him this already, but it’s obviously not working at this point.” said Carl, a more playful tone returning to his voice. “He then hands out punishments to all those involved. The serpent’s punishment is the one we’re interested in. God says; Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go. Now, think about the punishment, and tell me what hits you.”
“The first thing is that it’s calling the serpent a beast of the field again and saying the serpent is cursed above all cattle. You’d only collect those statements together if that’s what they were. The serpent was thought of as a form of cattle.”
“You thought processes are very logical sometimes Justin, you can class me as impressed.”
“The other thing is,” Justin said, brimming with pride, “that it’s not a very good punishment. Snakes already crawl around on their bellies. That’s kind of what makes a snake, a snake. What sort of punishment forces something to do what it’s already doing?”
“Congratulations kid! So we can infer from the text, as long as we take God as infallible, that he has actually done something to the serpent to force it to crawl on its belly. And thus we have the real difference between snakes and serpents.”
“Which is?”
“Don’t fall down now Justin, you were nearly there. Beast of the field? Cursed above all cattle?”
“The serpent had legs!”
“Well done! So tell me what a snake with legs is called in every culture, all over the planet. The Bible refers to them directly many times by this name.”
“Dragons?”
“Well done again, Justin. Although, you should try to remove any modern ideas about dragons from your mind. We are not talking about fire-breathing, scale-covered lizards here, and that’s the reason why Mexico was a logical choice for our decoy trail.”
“There’s a Mexican dragon?”
Justin’s question mirrored Louisa’s thoughts. She had never heard of a dragon in the Bible. It made no sense. However, if dragons were mentioned in the Bible, why did all those Christians protest against the Harry Potter movies? Surely, that was a little two-faced. Not that she had ever heard of a Mexican dragon for that matter.
“There’s actually a very special Mexican dragon. Legend from Mexico says that he came across the sea in a boat without paddles and that he taught the early people’s writing, woodwork, stonemasonry, law, medicine and astronomy, among many other things. However, he’s not a lizard, he’s a man. A God made flesh.”
“If he’s not a snake then how is he a serpent or a dragon?”
“What would you call a dragon or a serpent that was a bird rather than a lizard? Would you say it was scaly or would you say it was something else?”
“I would say it was feathered. Are you saying Quetzalcoatl
is the serpent of the Genesis account?”
“I am impressed you know of this figure Justin. Quetzalcoatl is just one of his names in the middle Americas. He has many, many others. Whether he is directly the serpent of the Genesis account I’m not sure, but as far as I’m concerned he’s of the same race and therefore intrinsically linked to the Ark.”
“The people who wrote the message we mistook as being from God; your Pioneer People!” said Justin, putting the pieces together. “I’d forgotten about them. The serpent is one of those guys!”
“You’ll get there in the end, kid.” said Carl, with a wink. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get some sleep. You should get to work with getting the data off those drives.”
Louisa gulped the last of her wine and ordered another. She deserved it. Whatever Carl was talking about was way beyond her reach of understanding, and thinking about it was making her headache worse. She turned and checked on Chris. He was now snoring lightly, his seat lounged all the way back and his broad chest heaving rhythmically.
As Carl leaned his own seat back and left Justin to work on the recovery of the data, Louisa rolled over to get some rest herself, and within seconds was sound asleep.
The next thing Louisa knew, the pilot was asking people to prepare for landing, and shortly afterward the group was making their way through the terminal.
Ben-Gurion airport was plush. As Louisa made her way through the building, she could not keep her thoughts from the other two airports in this region, Atarot and Yasser Arafat International. Both were crumbling ruins. Their buildings bombed-out and ransacked, and their runways cracked and potholed. As she walked, Louisa wondered if this airport would, in the fullness of time, end up in the same state of repair; not because of some geopolitical issue, but because two sets of rational people believed something different about ancient history. That one thought scared her in a way nothing else did.
As the group emerged from the building, the dramatic change in temperature between the air-conditioned interior and the sweltering heat of the Israeli desert struck like a sledgehammer, and Louisa found herself squinting through the bright sunshine.
“Why do you keep bringing me to these places!” said Justin, as he struggled for breath. “It’s no wonder people around here are upset and angry all the time.”
“You think it’s hot now?” said Carl, turning toward the ranks of Mercedes taxis parked on one edge of the building. “You should try standing outside in the middle of the afternoon.”
Justin looked at his watch and realised it was displaying the wrong time. Searching the terminal walls, he eventually found a clock. It was only just past ten in the morning. “My jetlag is so exhausted it’s affecting my ability to focus on my fatigue.”
Carl walked up to one of the larger people carriers and opened the side door, allowing the group to filter inside. “Har HaZeitim.” he said, as he flicked through the contents of his wallet.
The driver glared at him.
Carl turned and looked when they did not move. Realising his mistake, he reworded his original comment. “Ana asif.” he said, sheepishly. “Jebel az-Zeitun. Min fadlek.”
The driver’s glare softened a little as they began to drive off from the airport.
“I’ve got to try to pay more attention when I’m speaking to people around here. I don’t want to be talking in Hebrew when I should be using Arabic.”
“No, you do not.” said the driver; his voice tinged with the curved vocalisations of his origin. “Although many of us speak English, who work at the airports. It makes it easier to take Christian pilgrims like you to our nation’s tourist attractions.”
“It seems like you’ve grown up a little.” said Chris, as he gazed out of the back window.
“Yes we have. In many ways.” said the driver, as he pulled out of the airport and on to the main motorway to Jerusalem. “Your fare for the journey will be two hundred dollars.”
“Two hundred dollars for forty miles!” said Louisa.
“As you say,” said the man, making sure Chris could hear his words, “we have grown up.”
Louisa watched as they left the relatively fertile land by the coast near Tel-Aviv behind and headed out into the unforgiving wastes of the Israeli desert.
The motorway was a prime example of the dichotomy of many Middle Eastern societies. It was wonderfully constructed and surprisingly clean. Yet, just yards from its edge, the thatched huts and mud-brick dwellings of a population separated by political and religious intolerance lay. She endured an involuntary shiver, as she remembered news broadcasts from villages such as these. People butchered, food stores destroyed, and hope gone. The rotting embers of once great civilizations reduced to begging from their enemies.
As they came off the motorway toward the heart of Jerusalem, the density of the houses multiplied. When they turned south to circumvent the city centre, the noon sun was cascading off the impressive Dome of the Rock’s golden roof. The brilliant glow dazzled through the olive trees, which lined every street in the district, and bathed the sandstone vista in vibrant swathes of colour.
They pulled in at a busy taxi stop, the wide pavement crowded with a multitude of people from every race, as the driver happily waited for his payment.
Louisa stepped out of the taxi, avoiding the baying multitudes of religious pilgrims that swarmed everywhere. Across the pavement, a metal hutch sat by the side of a gateway in a long, stone wall. After scanning the array of signs, she eventually found one in English and was surprised to find she was outside the Garden of Gethsemane. Craning her neck and standing on tiptoes, she looked beyond the gate and into the garden itself. She was surprised to see it was just a dust track weaving around a collection of olive trees and yellowing sprouts of grass. She expected something grander. She expected… actually, she did not know. What should a two-thousand year old garden look like?
“So, what are we doing in Jerusalem again?” asked Louisa, as everyone else joined her on the curb.
“We’re here to see Yeshua’s followers. Just as Dave said we should.” said Carl, looking for a clear path through the crowds.
“Yeshua being?” asked Chris.
“Jesus man. It’s Jesus’ real name.” said Carl, seemingly surprised no one knew what he was on about.
There was a strange dichotomy to Carl. At moments, Louisa thought he was very good at explaining himself, and he tried hard to simplify his thoughts. At others, it was as if he believed everyone should already understand what he was saying. She could tell it was a trait that was already irritating Chris.
“I suggest you get hold of an early copy of the King James authorized version of the Bible.” said Carl, realising he was losing everyone and offering an explanation. “You’ll find his name is not Jesus in their either. His name is split by an apostrophe, Je’sus. Jesus is a given title, like nearly every other name used in the Bible. His real name was Yeshua bar Yosef, Je’sus son of Joseph. Early Hebrew has no J sound, that’s why the name is wrong in the Bible, because all the names have been Latinised. As a general rule, whenever you read a Biblical J, you should replace it with a Y, to give you a better inkling as to how it’s pronounced. Joseph becomes Yosef, Joshua become Yehoshua, etcetera. Yeshua is actually closer to a diminutive of the modern name Joshua. If Jesus was a literal translation of Yeshua rather than a given title, his name would actually be Jose or Josh in the Bible.”
Louisa could see a few small groups of tourists gaping, open-mouthed, in Carl’s direction and supressed a smile.
In response to the stares, Carl straightened his jacket and set off. Walking with pace, he turned off the main road up one of the side streets, and began to weave his way toward the summit of the Mount of Olives.
“Why are Jesus’ followers so important, Carl?” asked Louisa, catching up to Carl as they strode up the incline.
“I think Dave thought they had something to do with all this. Two of the things he mentioned were Havilah and Yeshua’s followers. One is
a mythical land mentioned in Genesis that’s a rich source of gold and the other, as you now know, is the real name of Jesus. Some people even contend that the land of milk and honey mentioned by Moses was in fact another name for the golden lands of Havilah. That’s the only link I have with this city, as it sits in the centre of those lands. Maybe the early Christians weren’t following a man, but an ideology based on a location.”
“So, Dave thought they knew something about the Ark of Ra?” asked Justin, sweating with the exertion of the climb and the heavy bag.
“I think so. Dave also mentioned something to do with disc and tablet, which I assume is the Tablets of Testimony from Exodus. He also said don’t follow the copy. I think he thought Moses didn’t smash the original tablets on the mount. The original text on those tablets could have something to do with the Ark.”
“My biblical history is a bit flaky.” said Louisa, not wanting to tell Carl she was struggling with every single comment he made.
“Exodus nineteen to thirty-four. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, has just dropped in to say hello after the battle at the twelve wells with the tribe of Amalek. Moses has led his people to Sinai and prepares to go up the mount. God then gives Moses fourteen commandments…”
“Fourteen?” said Louisa. She knew that was wrong. “It’s the Ten Commandments; just like the Charlton Heston movie.”
“Exodus twenty, where God gives Moses the rules he must live by, contains fourteen commandments. Just because the writer of the New Testament could only remember ten, it does not mean it is the correct figure.”
Carl turned another corner and the road became steeper. In the distance, a collection of buildings marked by a peaked dome appeared above the tree line.
“God then passes down laws about cattle, women, and the ownership of slaves.” said Carl, wheezing a little himself. “He goes on to describe exactly what sort of tent has to be made to store the Ark of the Covenant in, and then gets to work with the entire Burning Bush thing. When Moses is up Mount Sinai, the Israelites get broody and ask Aaron to make a golden calf. When Moses returns from the mount with the tablets, he’s so angry about what his people have done, he smashes them to dust. Later, Moses makes a copy of the originals to replace those he destroyed. Therefore, when Dave said don’t follow the copy, I think he was telling us not to track this second set. However, I cannot even think of the relevance to the Ark, other than the fact the Bible says the tablets were stored in it. Maybe they are not an exact copy. Maybe they don’t contain the same information. I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of anyone who believed the first copy survived or has even researched it. Nevertheless, I do know that on this hill is a place that could be another of the things that Dave referred to, the hidden place. It’s a shallow cave where the ossuaries of early Christians were placed.”
“Ossuaries? You mean burial boxes, right?” said Justin.
“Your knowledge of this stuff is much better than you give yourself credit for, Justin.” said Carl, stopping on the crest of the hill. “In nineteen fifty-three, a church called Dominus Flevit was built here. When they were digging the foundations, they found a cache of untouched ossuaries buried in an underground chamber. It’s the only place where you can actually see anything that belonged to the early Christians, as so little remains from the period.”
A few hundred feet below was the simple, yet beautiful church of Dominus Flevit. Surrounding it, the dark-green spires of cypress trees counterpointed the bluish cap adorning its pear-shaped roof. In the distance, the Dome of the Rock’s magnificent golden roof shone brightly, providing a focal point in the sea of sandstone buildings.
“Wow.” Louisa said, catching her emotion with a cough.
“That’s a hell of a view.” said Chris, as he puffed on a cigarette.
“I’ve never seen Jerusalem from here before. You can see why people would think it’s worth fighting for.” said Carl, staring wide-eyed at the glorious vista.
Stamping his cigarette out with a practiced flourish of his heel, Chris’ face hardened against the beauty. “Respite over guys. Let’s get done whatever we’re here to do. God knows how long we’ve got before we’re found again.”
Chapter 29