The Moses Legacy by Adam Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

between Mansoor and Gabrielle.
    â€˜Where the original inscriptions were found, you mean? No. They were found about 130 kilometres east of that.’
    â€˜So that also makes it pretty far from the Temple of Hathor.’
    â€˜Hathor?’ said Gabrielle excitedly. ‘The Egyptian cow goddess? Why do you ask?’
    â€˜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.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜Well, that at least opens the possibility that it’s a text of the early Israelites,’ Daniel concluded.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜The Habiru was a term used for roving bandits,’ said Mansoor. ‘The Shasu were shepherds.’
    â€˜Some people think the names may have been used interchangeably,’ Gabrielle pressed on.
    â€˜But we have graphic depictions of both people,’ Mansoor replied firmly, ‘and they wore different styles of clothes.’
    â€˜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.’
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    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.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.
    â€˜Yes?… A mobile phone?… But how did she?… You were supposed to have searched them… No, we don’t