The Deceit

40

Aswan, Egypt

‘It means the beloved,’ Ryan said, looking at Helen.

She frowned, and gazed down at the hieroglyph.

Beyond her, outside the scuzzy internet café, central Aswan wilted in the noonday heat; empty cruise boats were moored and rusting by the riverside pier; unemployed taxi drivers sat yawning, in their white turbans, on the benches, waiting for the tourists who would never come. Other than them it was just Ryan and Helen in here, a couple of hardy backpackers, and the café owner. Albert had gone to church. His behaviour was becoming increasingly bizarre.

Helen traced the hieroglyph with her finger. ‘I cannot read hieroglyphs, but these symbols refer to Isis?’

‘Yes,’ said Ryan. ‘But the importance is the sounds that they also imply. M-ry. Beloved is pronounced M-ry. Egyptian has no vowels.’ He wrote it down.

M-RY

‘OK,’ said Helen, and her expression showed her comprehension. She understood. ‘And show me those other images again — the ancient Egyptian depictions of Isis with Horus.’

‘Of course.’ Ryan turned to his computer screen. ‘Here.’

The screen showed a picture of Isis suckling a baby on her lap: her godly son Horus.

‘So … it is just like the Madonna with child, on her knee. The Blessed Virgin with Jesus?’

Ryan nodded. ‘Yes. Exactly. The image of Isis, M-ry, the Beloved, with Horus, is the template the early Christians used for Mary, the Beloved, with baby Jesus.’ Ryan was feeling something he hadn’t felt in many years: vindication, triumphant vindication. He had unlocked the Macarius puzzle, with only a half or a third or even a fraction of the documents: he had done it.

‘This is why the Copts defaced Isis repeatedly and viciously in the temple of Philae. Especially when they showed her suckling Horus. Here, see …’

Helen stared. Ryan went on,

‘They knew that the whole idea of the Virgin, of Mary, even the name Mary, had come from Egypt, not Israel, not from any historical event. They even stole her name. M-ry. Mary. The Beloved.’

‘What else?’ Helen asked. ‘What else proves this?’

‘The whole idea of the conception of Jesus comes from Egyptian mythology. That’s what the frieze at Luxor is. A god comes down and impregnates a woman, she is told by an angel — a deity — that she is pregnant, and behold, she gives birth to a divine child. All of this written on a temple wall: a thousand years before Jesus.’

The café was dark, but Ryan felt as if he had seen the light.

‘Once you make the connection, the evidence is overwhelming. According to some legends Horus, the son of Isis, was born on the winter solstice, in a manger. The birth of Horus was announced in the East, and he was attended by “three wise men” — they are shown at Philae. Horus was baptized by Anup the baptizer, who was later beheaded just like John the Baptist. In Abydos, at the temple of Seti I, his mother Isis calls herself “the great virgin” — I’ve seen it myself many times, so many times, it was staring me in the face …’

Ryan turned back to his computer, tapped the keyboard, and read out, ‘The very scriptures are completely lifted: in Pyramid Text 1/5 the Sky Goddess, speaking from heaven and talking about the dead god, says, “This is my son, my first-born … this is my beloved, with whom I have been satisfied—”’

Helen interrupted. ‘Matthew, chapter three, verse seven: “And Lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”’ She shook her head. ‘Again, impressive. Anything else?’

‘Endless!’ Ryan said, smiling. ‘It’s endless! Horus was also known as “the Way the Truth the Life”, as the Messiah, and as the Son of Man. And as the Good Shepherd, the Lamb, the Holy Child, and as Iuse — Iusa! — Jesus! — which means the Holy One. He was also called “the anointed one”. This is what must have shaken Sassoon to the core. This is why the Israelis want to destroy the Sokar Hoard. It proves that Judaism is descended from Egyptian faith.’

‘And what about Moses?’ asked Helen. ‘How does he fit in?’

‘Moses we now know was Egyptian, but monotheism was also Egyptian. Freud may well have been right: Moses was just an Egyptian priest, possibly a priest of Akhenaten. Consider the great hymn of the Aten: “I regulated the course of the sun and the moon”. It’s Genesis, but Genesis written by the Egyptians.’

‘But the Exodus—’

‘Never happened. There were no Jews in Egypt in 1500 BC: that’s why there’s no archaeological evidence for it. Which has always puzzled historians. Six hundred thousand Jews moving across Sinai, even six thousand Jews … I mean, you’d see something, right? Some evidence? Yet there is nothing.’ He rushed on eagerly. ‘Yet monotheism started in Egypt with Akhenaten. We know that for sure. So how did it reach Israel and the Jews? It was taken from there by a heretic Egyptian priest, Moses, maybe with some followers. The Bible hides this awkward fact by pretending Jews were enslaved in Egypt, which is nonsense; but they can’t admit that the central claim and narrative of Judaism, the story of Moses the Jew, is a total fraud. Yet there are hints in the Bible, in the Talmud, that Egypt is key. All the great biblical figures supposedly spent time in Egypt — Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Jeremiah, even Jesus in the New Testament — they were all in Egypt at some point. The Egyptian DNA of Judaism is still visible, there in the Bible, but it is concealed.’

‘Wait.’ Helen’s smile was gentle, but her glittering eyes showed that she was excited too. ‘Wait.’ She turned and gestured to the café owner, bored and listless on his stool. ‘Salaam. Kharkadil?’

‘Aiwa.’ The man nodded, and went to his fridge. He took a jug of deep purple hibiscus juice and poured two glasses. Then he brought them over and set them down. Ryan drank. The juice was always good, but right now it was the most delicious drink he had ever tasted.

Helen sipped, and asked, ‘So what about the Copts?’

‘They are crucial. They are like archaeopteryx, in palaeontology.’

‘Sorry?’

‘The first prehistoric bird, which retains some reptilian features. Showing that birds evolved from dinosaurs.’

‘OK.’

‘The Copts retain features that show they are descended from Pharaonic times: the hieroglyphs in the alphabet, of course, and the orant — their way of praying — that’s ancient Egyptian. And that funeral rite we saw in Tawdros: that’s Egyptian. Even their churches are often built out of Egyptian temples. Tawdros again.’

‘But why are the Copts so important?’

Ryan smiled, exultant. Sassoon would have been proud of him. ‘Because early Coptic Christian Egypt was the place where Christianity was codified, written down, made up. It was done in Alexandria, where all the great scholars lived, Jewish and Christian, Gnostic and pagan, right next to the great and famous library. The first evangelist, Mark, founded the Coptic church in 70 AD. In Alexandria.’

‘The ankh!’

‘Exactly. The cross only appears as a Christian symbol in, what, the late second century? Before that, the symbol of Christians was usually the fish, or the Chi-Rho monogram.’ He was almost rushing his words now; he didn’t care. ‘Then the early Egyptian Christians realized the power of the cross — because they were no doubt inspired by the power of the ankh. The great Egyptian symbol, so very similar to a cross. I saw it in Cairo: that’s what those antiquities in the Coptic museum reveal, the ankh evolving into the cross. And this fits with the documentary evidence, too. The first historical citation of the cross as a Christian symbol is made by an Egyptian — Clement of Alexandria — in the third century.’

Helen shook her head. ‘So the entire Jesus story is a myth? It is just the story of Horus?’

‘No. Well, no, not entirely. There probably was some charismatic Jewish prophet, or faith-healer, probably called Jesus, there is a bit of evidence for that; some agitator who annoyed the Romans and the rabbis, but the story of the Virgin Birth, the entire Nativity, that’s pure Egyptian: the story of Isis and Horus. The Jewish and Christian scholars in Egypt must have folded it in, to attract and gather the faithful. They knew that Isis was wildly popular across the Mediterranean world, so they added in all the best bits of her story.’

‘And the Resurrection?’

Ryan swallowed some kharkadil. ‘Probably another Egyptian invention. The Resurrection doesn’t actually appear in the authentic gospel of Mark, the first gospel: it’s added later, but anyway it’s just the story of Horus, and of the Aten, the Egyptian sun god, the sun goes down at the winter solstice, the three darkest days, then it re-emerges. It’s the same mythology: Sunday, the day of the sun, Easter Sunday … Hello, Albert.’

The Coptic dealer had entered the café quietly. How long had he been standing there, behind them? It was a little stealthy.

He smiled at them. ‘‘‘The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally paid to the sun.”That’s from Thomas Paine, I believe.’ He pulled up a chair and sat down. ‘Go on, please, I have been listening. It is fascinating. You have decoded it, my friend, decoded it!’

‘Well, perhaps.’ Ryan shrugged.

‘No,’ Albert insisted. ‘This is it! Please, do not allow me to interrupt.’

Helen said quietly, ‘OK then. Do we have any proof that it was all written in Egypt? Other than Macarius?’

‘Yes.’ Ryan suppressed his exultation, ‘Oh yes. Remember how Macarius said, “I went to the great library, but it was destroyed”? That’s because the early Christians burned the greatest library in the world, full of pagan and Jewish lore and knowledge: they sacked it repeatedly. And why? Why did they burn it down? Because they wanted to annihilate evidence for the Egyptian origins of the faith.’

‘However—’

Ryan didn’t give Helen a chance to interrupt. ‘Remember also that Macarius said this arson didn’t matter, because he had read all the books, all the books which came from Egypt?’

‘Yes.’

‘He means it literally. All of the New Testament came from Egypt. It’s true. Let’s play a game.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Open up your computer. Name a book of the New Testament.’

Helen tapped some keys. ‘Gospel of John.’

‘What’s the earliest surviving copy or even fragment of John?’

She tapped again. ‘Uh. Papyrus … uh … 52. From the second century. It is now kept in Manchester, England.’

‘And where was it found?’

She typed for a few moments, then scrutinized the screen. ‘Discovered in 1920, in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.’

‘Try another. Let’s try Luke, the Gospel of Luke.’

‘OK.’ She typed, and then replied, ‘Gospel of Luke, earliest extant copy is … written in Alexandrian Greek. Now kept in … the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris.’

‘And it was discovered in?’

‘Coptos, Egypt.’

‘How about Thessalonians?’

She tapped. ‘Papyrus 92. Third- or fourth-century fragment found in … Cairo, Egypt.’

Albert intervened. ‘The Book of Revelations.’

A pause. ‘Papyrus 115. Third century. Now in the Ashmolean, Oxford, England — but found in Oxyrhynchus. In Egypt.’

Albert tried another. ‘Gospel of Matthew.’

‘Papyrus 67. Late second century. Found in Egypt.’

The café was silent. Helen thrust her chair back. ‘I do not believe it.’

‘But it’s true! It’s almost miraculous. Try one more.’ Ryan was verging on gleeful. ‘Let’s try something different: say, the Second Epistle of John.’

She keyed the names, then read the answer. ‘The earliest surviving copy of the Second Epistle of John is a fragment of Greek script, on parchment, known as Uncial 0232.’ She paused. ‘It was found in Antinopolis, near Besa, in central Egypt.’

‘You see? Every single book of the New Testament is first found in Egypt, and it’s not just because they simply found one big copy — though the first surviving copy of the entire Bible is also Egyptian, from Sinai, the Codex Sinaiticus — but the first and earliest fragments and copies and papyri are all Egyptian. The entire Christian Bible was written and compiled in Egypt, mainly in Alexandria.’

‘So Macarius was right?’

‘Yes. And this is his big and frightening secret. Christianity was invented by Gnostic and Jewish scholars, slaving away in Alexandria, consciously inventing a new religion, taking elements of recent Jewish history: the story of some criminal magician, some local prophet, a suitably obscure rabble-rouser called Jesus, to ensure the Jews liked the new religion. But they wanted to spread the good news, they wanted Gentiles to believe too: this was a global faith they were writing, so they sprinkled in the Egyptian magic, added in the Nativity, the Virgin, the son of God, the miracles and the Resurrection, especially anything to do with the most popular goddess of the day, Isis. In it went. All of it derived from Egyptian sources. The ankh, the praying, everything. They even took the halo from the Egyptian sun symbol, positioned over the head of an Egyptian deity.’

Helen looked crestfallen. ‘So. It is all a lie …’

Albert spoke, ponderously. ‘Well, Helen, not so much a lie. More like a remake.’ He was smiling. ‘Christianity is a glamorous remake of a provincial original. Like, shall we say, a little European art movie turned into a Hollywood blockbuster?’

Helen’s frowning face was illuminated by the glowing computer screens. ‘OK. OK. I do get it. This … this secret would terrify fundamentalists, Jewish or Christian, it would destroy their faith, or much of it — but it doesn’t explain everything. It does not explain what is happening to the Zabaleen — why are they supposedly bewitched? And it does not explain what that quote about the Beast means, and it cannot explain what the Greek word riddle means.’

Ryan shrugged, exuberantly. ‘Does it matter? We’ve just debunked Judaism and Christianity!’ He chuckled. ‘That’s not enough, before lunch?’

‘It’s quite enough,’ said Albert. ‘Very impressive, exhilarating even … And now you must, I am afraid, accompany me.’

‘What?’

He was holding something in his hand. Ryan stared down at it.

‘I feel like a gangster. But there we are. Let us take a small but exciting drive. And then you can hand over the papyrus.’

‘Albert—’

‘If you do not, I am obliged to shoot.’

The gun was levelled at Ryan’s stomach. Albert’s hand was trembling. But his voice was quite firm.

‘Now.’