The Second Messiah

Yesterday afternoon, digging in one of the many cave recesses that dotted the Qumran landscape, in the southern part of the location known as Area A, he had found a two-foot-long sealed terra-cotta pot. Breaking the seal, inside the pot he discovered a single rolled leather parchment wrapped in frayed linen. The scroll appeared fragile but reasonably intact. Cane was elated.

Judging by its material condition and its written language, Aramaic, Jack believed it came from the same period as those already uncovered. When Professor Green unrolled the first two inches of the leather—as much as he dared risk at first without causing damage—they saw that it had already suffered partial destruction.

Portions of the inked parchment were obliterated, leaving holes and frayed gaps in the parchment. However, it was still possible to decipher several word clusters. Two in particular—faintly visible on the second line—leaped out and made Cane’s pulse race:

Yeshua HaMeshiah

Yeshua HaMeshiah—Jesus the Messiah. Jesus Christ. Jack knew that the presence of that name was remarkable, for one very simple reason.

The Dead Sea scrolls that had already been discovered in the last sixty years were mostly Jewish documents. They had almost nothing Christian in them. Jesus’ name was never mentioned once in the 870 scrolls and the tens of thousands of scroll fragments found—not a single reference made to him or to his followers. Until now.

Green said, “Do you have a knife handy?”

“Sure.” Jack unfolded a well-worn four-inch Gerber folding pocketknife. The sharp-tipped titanium blade was his favorite implement for picking away any fine debris, and he handed it to Green. “Be my guest.”

The professor’s enthusiasm rose as he used the tip of the knife to raise the edge of the parchment. “Take a look at the sentences that comprise the first lines. You can just make out the words. There’s definitely something very odd going on here. You see?”

Green’s left index finger hovered over the first faded words of Aramaic.

Green added, “The entire literal translation of the first lines reads, ‘This story concerns the man known as Jesus the Messiah. Having traveled from Caesarea to Dora, where his name had become well-known, he failed miserably to cure the blind and the sick, despite his promises to do so. Soon after, he was arrested in Dora by the Romans, tried and found guilty, and sentenced to be executed.’”

Green wiped a patina of sweat from his forehead as he finished reading, put down the knife, and looked up at Jack. “Which is bizarre. Because so far as history records there’s no mention of Jesus ever having visited Caesarea or Dora, or being arrested and sentenced there to be executed. He’s recorded to have traveled to places in Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon, but never to Caesarea or Dora, which are on the Mediterranean coast, in the northwest of Israel.”

“You’ve no doubt about your biblical history?”

Green grinned, stuck a hand in his pocket, and held up a BlackBerry. “As technology is my witness.”

“You checked.”

“I may be an expert on the period, but even I still double-check. I consulted a couple of excellent online Bible study sites to be absolutely certain.”

“What did you learn?”

“Jesus was known to have frequented a fairly small stomping ground in Judea. Caesarea and Dora were Mediterranean coastal towns, about sixty miles away. Dora at that time was in a Roman-controlled province of Syria. Its population wasn’t Jewish. In fact, it feuded with the Jews. Caesarea was in Samaria province. And as for failing miserably to cure the blind and the sick...” Green spread his hands and gave a dramatic shrug. “Like I said, it’s bizarre. None of it makes sense. It’s certainly going to confound the Bible scholars.”

Jack rubbed his eyes, stared at the scroll’s writing once more, and shook his head. Green was an Aramaic language expert, so Jack discounted any possibility of a mistake. “It sure is a puzzle, professor.”

Green tossed his reading glasses on the table in a gesture of defeat. “One that’s got me stumped for now, I’m afraid.”

Jack removed a worn leather notebook from his Chinos pocket. “Do you mind if I copy down the text in my notebook?”

“Feel free, you’re the one who found it. Here’s hoping that the rest of the scroll reveals more information and helps us put the words into context. But to tell the truth I did manage to get the scroll open just a fraction more before I gave up and decided to let things be. The text I saw had me confused.”

“What do you mean?”

“It read like gibberish. The Aramaic characters all looked legible, apart from a few holes in the parchment, but the few words that I saw didn’t make any sense. Like they were jumbled or written in an alien language.” Green tried to rub the sleep from his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “It’s probably my own exhaustion. It’s been over twenty-four hours since I last slept. My eyeballs feel like they’ve been smacked around a pool table.”