The Moses Stone

'Not much is known about the inhabitants of Ein-Gedi at the time, but the oasis must have been reasonably prosperous to have been able to support that many people.

Presumably the Sicarii were looking for food or weapons, that kind of thing, to help them in their fight against the Roman forces encircling Masada. Of course,' Ben Halevi finished, 'it didn't do them any good, because the citadel fell not that long afterwards, and all the Sicarii there perished.'

'That's interesting, Yosef,' Angela said, making a mental note, then changed the subject. 'We're also interested in the background to the story of the Mosaic Covenant. For Chris's benefit, could you explain a bit about that as well?'

'The Mosaic Covenant?' Ben Halevi said, looking closely at Angela – too closely for Bronson's liking. 'Right.

Well, according to your Bible – the Old Testament, obviously – one of the most sacred objects owned by the Israelites was the Ark of the Covenant, which was stored in several different sanctuaries in Judea over the years, including Shiloh and Shechem. When Jerusalem was captured by King David, he decided to build a permanent resting place for the relic there, and the Temple Mount in the old part of the city was the obvious choice.

'Solomon was the second son of David, and ascended to the throne as King of Israel in 961 BC. He continued the work his father had started, and completed the temple in 957 BC. The building was not only the home of the Ark itself, which had its own special room there called the devir, or holy of holies, but also a place of worship for the people. According to legend, though the temple was fairly small, it had a courtyard large enough to accommodate a substantial number of worshippers. It was apparently constructed primarily of cedar, but with a lot of gold ornamentation inside. This became known as the Temple of Solomon, and later as the First Temple. It lasted for some 370 years until Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldea, razed Jerusalem to the ground and completely destroyed the building. The Ark of the Covenant vanished from the historical record some time during this period.'

'What was the Ark made of?' Bronson asked. 'Gold, I suppose?'

Ben Halevi shook his head. 'Most accounts state that it appeared to be gold, but we believe it was actually made of acacia wood that was then covered in gold leaf. It was apparently very highly decorated, with an ornamented lid and rings on the sides that allowed it to be carried using poles thrust through them. If that description was correct, the chances are that the wood had rotted and the Ark itself might well have disintegrated by this time, so it may not have been stolen.

'Anyway,' Ben Halevi continued, 'about half a century later, work started on erecting the Second Temple, which was probably similar in design to the Temple of Solomon, but more modest in scale. It was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans – and as you probably know there's been no Jewish temple on the Mount since then, and that's a problem for many Jews.'

Ben Halevi gestured towards the waiter, who brought over a bottle of red wine and refilled their glasses.

'You mean because you don't have a place to worship?'

Bronson asked.

Ben Halevi shook his head. 'Not just that, though obviously it's an important point. No, to fully understand why the lack of a temple is so important, you have to delve into your New Testament, into the Book of Revelation, in fact. You're familiar with it, I presume?' he asked, another smile slowly becoming visible.

Bronson shook his head.

'Shame on you,' Ben Halevi said lightly. 'Let me explain. The Book of Revelation was allegedly written by a man called John of Patmos, who was possibly also the Apostle John, because he was believed to have been exiled to the island of Patmos in the Aegean late in the first century AD. It's probably the most difficult book in your Bible to understand, because it's entirely apocalyptic, all to do with the Second Coming and the end of the world, which is why early versions of the book were known as 'The Apocalypse of John'. Now, the truth is that nobody knows if the author was the Apostle John or somebody completely different, just as nobody knows if the man who wrote it was a true visionary, a seer, who was accurately describing visions and images sent to him by God, or just a harmless loony who'd flipped from living on a sunbaked rock in the Aegean surrounded by goats.

'The trouble is that a lot of people have taken what's written in the Book of Revelation as the gospel truth, literally believing every word. Predictably enough, most of these fundamentalist believers live in America, a nice long distance away from us on the front line in Israel, but there are quite a lot of people here who share the same beliefs. And one of the crucial ideas culled from Revelation is that there will be a Second Coming, a day of Apocalypse, when Jesus will return to the earth, but this time as a warrior, not a messiah, and His arrival will herald the final battle between good and evil. After that battle, which the forces of good will win – obviously – Jesus will reign over a peaceful earth for a thousand years.'

'Do you believe that stuff?' Bronson asked, his expression openly sceptical.

'I'm a Jew,' Ben Halevi replied. 'I'm just reminding you of what your Bible says. My beliefs are irrelevant.'

'But do you?' Bronson persisted.

'Since you ask, no, but it's what the majority believes that's important, and you'd be surprised how many people do expect the world to end pretty much as Revelation foretells.'

'And this revolves around the Third Temple?' Angela suggested.

'Exactly. According to one interpretation of Revelation – and not everyone agrees with this – Jesus will only return to earth when the Jews possess all of the Holy Land. The closest we came to that was in 1967 when our soldiers captured Jerusalem, and for the first time in almost two millennia we regained control of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount itself. But control of the Mount was almost immediately handed back to the Muslims by Moshe Dayan.'

'Why on earth did he do that?'

'Well, Dayan was the Minister of Defence at the time, so the decision was his, and it's even possible to argue that it was the right decision. The Temple Mount was already occupied by the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, two of the holiest sites in Islam. If Israel had retained control of the Mount, there would have been enormous pressure to destroy these buildings in order to erect the Third Temple, and if that had been done, we would almost certainly have found ourselves at war with the entire Muslim world, a war we probably wouldn't have been able to win. What Dayan did brought at least a measure of peace – or the hope of it, anyway.'

He sighed, and Bronson knew that he was thinking of the recent terrible unrest and the continuing battles between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Angela leant forward slightly and looked at Ben Halevi.

'Finally, Yosef, what's your opinion of the Copper Scroll? Do you think it's a genuine listing of some treasures, or just a hoax?'

The Israeli smiled slightly. 'That's fairly easy to answer,' he said. 'I think most researchers are satisfied that the Copper Scroll is a real listing of real treasure. It's also been suggested that it was only ever intended to record the hiding places of the treasure for a short time, the idea being that the objects would be recovered within a matter of months or a few years at the latest after being hidden. But if that is the case, why didn't the authors of the scroll write it on papyrus instead? Why would they take such enormous time and trouble to prepare a document apparently intended to last for eternity, if the text they were going to produce would only be applicable for a few years?

'And if the Copper Scroll is a real listing, that suggests that the reference to another document – the so-called Silver Scroll – is also real, in which case the short-term hiding place argument takes another hit. Why produce the Copper Scroll and another, possibly silver, scroll, to record something so ephemeral? Nobody has so far offered a convincing reason for that discrepancy.

'The only believable suggestion I've heard was that the two scrolls would have to be read together to decipher what was meant. In other words, the Silver Scroll would positively identify the area where something was hidden, and then the detailed reference on the Copper Scroll would lead you to the exact hiding place. In that case, it would make sense to hide the two scrolls in separate locations, which we know was done, because there's nothing like the Silver Scroll concealed anywhere at Qumran.'

Bronson and Angela exchanged glances. That was a sort of confirmation of what they had deduced from the inscription on the clay tablets.