Decipher by Stel Pavlou Read Free Book Online

people were walking out. He wasn’t surprised. He was, however, surprised that there hadn’t been more. He waited for the door to close gently behind them. People had a peculiar habit of conveniently forgetting even the most widely accepted facts. After all, hadn’t the Egyptian goddess Isis promised an afterlife that was better than this life, thousands of years before Christ?
    Scott smiled, warmly. This was where the fun began. “The Nag Hammadi scrolls are also interesting because they’re Coptic—written in the later form of Egyptian which used a Greek alphabet. But Joshua and his contemporaries spoke Aramaic, so was it unusual for people who spoke Aramaic to write everything down in Greek? Well, actually no. If we think about present-day Belgium, no one writes in Dutch or Flemish, they write in German or French, or more often than not, English.
    â€œAlthough none of the Gospels are written in Aramaic, we know the writers spoke that language because Aramaic language structures are hidden within the text. Remember my point about German grammar?”
    He keyed the machine and another slide popped up into view—an ancient scroll covered neatly in ordered brown script. “But, that,” he said, “is the opening page of a lost book. One I think you’ll all find quite fascinating.
    â€œFor years there’s been speculation about a lost book of Q, or Quelle, which was extensively researched by John Kloppenborg in the mid-1980s. Kloppenborg believed that somewhere, there must be the original first-hand account of Jesus before the writers of the Gospels had their say. The consensus was that The Book of Q , which has shaped our culture, was a verbal history, which may initially have been written in Aramaic.
    â€œBut that page,” he pointed to the screen, “proves something else entirely. It is not, and I stress not, The Book of Q.
It’s much older, as indicated by Chlorine 36 isotope tests. The genetic deterioration shows it was written on the skin of a very old goat. And it proves for the very first time that Christ borrowed his ideas from the cult of Mithras. This book dates from four to five hundred years before any such Jesus Christ was ever born. Yet the New Testament shares its imagery and its symbolism almost perfectly, almost word for word. It is not a Mithraic text, and it is not Christian. It’s a combination of the two. It’s the proverbial missing link. And it was written in Aramaic.”
    Scott grinned, a touch smugly. He finished off his lecture with a simple, quiet question to the audience. “Anyone here still want to be Christian?”
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    It was sometime later that Scott found himself inside a wooden box. Clean and white, the whole approach was airy, instead of the dark and murky confessionals of Old Europe. Barely masking a schoolboy chortle, he announced: “Bless me, Fergus, for I have sinned.”
    The hatch behind the grating slid back with a vicious clap. “Yes, yes. Cut the crap.”
    There was a sigh, followed by a dull tapping sound. It stopped for a moment, then continued. Scott sat forward and peered through the grill at the priest beyond. He could see him rolling his eyes, while fishing around inside his black cassock for a Zippo. He was mumbling some sort of an apology to the heavens as he tapped out a cigarette.
    â€œWhat’re you doing?” Scott asked. The first puff of smoke drifted over. He could smell it was a good brand of cigarette. Almost certainly European.
    â€œCalming my nerves. I can’t believe the sort of hornet’s nest you’ve managed to stir up, Richie, my boy.” He tried to spit out a shred of tobacco but it was sticking to the tip of his tongue. He brushed at his cassock. “A real big fucking mess.”
    They eyed each other. “Let’s eat,” Scott said.
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    They strolled across the neatly cut glade in the center of the Grove, heading for the Associated