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!’
Chapter 11
‘Look, could you at least give me my phone back so that I can call my folks?’
Jane’s tone was like that of a stroppy teenager. She was being held in the isolation wing of a military hospital along with the other volunteers from the dig and also some of the soldiers. They were segregated from each other in order to further reduce the risk of infection.
They had been told very little, beyond the fact that it was a precaution and it was for their own wellbeing.
‘We aren’t allowing phone calls for the time being,’ the man from the Ministry of Health explained to her, in the tone of a kindergarten teacher to a not very bright child.
‘Why not?’
‘We don’t want to start a panic.’
‘You’re probably starting more of a panic by holding us incommunicado like this.’
The man from the Health Ministry, an alumnus of Harvard, looked impressed by Jane’s vocabulary as he thought of her as an empty-headed blonde. She sensed the patronizing attitude from the smile on his face, even though he said nothing.
‘My father’s a United States senator.’
‘I know,’ said the official, still smiling. ‘And this is against your constitutional rights.’
‘Look, it’s not funny!’
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. But you have to understand that a panic is the last thing we need. We depend heavily on the tourist industry in this country.’
‘Look, I’m not going to start a panic. Besides, my father already knows.’
The official looked at her blankly and then understood.
‘Oh yes, aren’t you the one who smuggled a phone into the dig?’
She blushed and then smiled, realizing that the look on the health official’s face was actually one of approval.
‘Okay, yes that was me. Look, I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I just didn’t want him to worry.’
She gave the official a seductive smile. He looked at her hesitantly.
‘Okay, one call. And don’t mention that anyone else is in quarantine. You can tell him that you’re okay – and that you’ll be released in two weeks.’
She smiled as he handed his mobile phone through the sliding drawer into the isolation area. Then she took the phone and put in the call.
‘Hallo Dad.’
‘Jane,’ said Senator Morris.
‘Listen, I’ve got some bad news. Because of what happened at the dig with Joel, we’ve been put into quarantine.’
‘What? At the hospital?’ The shock was palpable.
‘Yes, but a different hospital. They’ve said they’ll release me in two weeks, but I’m not allowed to have my phone with me.’
‘Why not?’
She looked at the health official, wondering how much she was free to say.
‘Something about contamination.’
‘Did you manage to get any of Joel’s clothes?’
‘No, I didn’t have a chance.’
‘Okay, well, look… don’t feel bad. You tried your best.’
She did feel bad though, or at least mildly guilty. ‘Thanks, Dad.’
‘Oh, just one thing.’
‘Yes?’
‘You’re sure they don’t know that I told you to get a sample of Joel’s clothes?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Okay, that’s good.’
They said goodbye and Jane handed the phone back to the official through the sliding drawer. He picked it up with an alcohol wipe and cleaned it all over before putting it in his pocket.
Amused as she was by the official’s paranoia, Jane was more concerned by what her father was up to. She
