The Moses Legacy

Chapter 93

Daniel had recovered his composure and was reading out loud. I returned to the city and claimed the throne of Egypt and fought against my brother Sethi. And the Jehovah-ites helped me against the might of Egypt.

‘Jehovah-ites?’ Gabrielle repeated.

‘It says Yahowa da’im. That could be translated as the ones who knew Jehovah. But it could also be Yehudim: the Judah-ites, which in English is translated as Jews.’

‘What else does it say?’

He carried on translating. But my brother’s army was too strong and so we fled into the desert: Israel and the Jehovah-ites.

‘So you’ve got two peoples joining forces: the Jehovah-ites or Judah-ites… and Israel.’

‘That’s what it appears to be saying.’ And we celebrated our freedom like the sed of Pharaoh.

He broke off. ‘I don’t know if I pronounced that right.’

‘You did,’ said Gabrielle. ‘The sed festival was a great feast that the pharaohs had to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary – those that had such an anniversary, that is. Then they had other sed festivals every three or four years thereafter. Ramesses the Second, who ruled for sixty-six years, had fourteen sed festivals.’

‘And what were they? I mean, how did they celebrate?’

‘The sed festivals were essentially great banquets for the royal court with sumptuous food and singing by choirs consisting of the royal wives. They also had singers from the temples and performing acrobats and the whole thing was officiated over by the daughters of Asian princes whose main job was to pour drinks for the pharaoh four times into his royal goblet… Daniel?’

He realized that the look on his face had arrested her exposition midstream. ‘Say that again.’

‘I said, the festival of sed was a-’

‘No, the bit about the drinks.’

She blinked, uncertain of what he was getting at. ‘They were poured by Asian princesses who-’

‘No, I mean how many times?’

‘What – how many times did they pour the drinks? Four, according to the descriptions in the ancient texts.’

‘ Four drinks.’

‘Yes,’ Gabrielle replied, still unsure of what Daniel was getting at.

‘And it’s called the festival of sed?’

‘ Yes! Look, what’s all this about? What’s so special about four drinks? As opposed to three… or any other number.’

‘The Jews celebrate the Exodus at Passover-’

‘Yes, I know that!’

‘No, what I mean is that Passover starts with a festive family dinner accompanied by a religious service at the dining table called a seider. That means order, in both biblical and modern Hebrew, because things have to be done in a particular order.’

‘Mm… I never thought of that.’

‘But there’s more. It’s a tradition at the seider service that we drink four glasses or cups of wine!’

‘Good God!’

‘ That’s what I was getting at. Specifically four!’

‘And you think that this seider service could originate with the festival of sed that the Egyptian kings used to celebrate?’

‘That’s what I’m beginning to think.’

Gabrielle was unable to contain her curiosity. ‘Does it say any more?’

‘I was translating from the bottom of the second tablet.’

‘Then let’s go on to the next one.’ The Jehovah-ites were a warrior people and did not wish to stay outside Canaan as we did. So they entered Canaan in battle with their leader Judah.

‘Did the Israelites have a leader called Judah at the time?’ asked Gabrielle.

Daniel’s eyes lit up. ‘No, but there was a tribe called Judah! And for much of history Judah was a separate kingdom from Israel. And of course Judah can also mean the One Who Knew Jehovah.’

‘That would explain the fragmented history of your people,’ she said with a smile.

‘Absolutely. It explains quite a lot of things such as the varying linguistic styles of the early parts of the Bible and some of the apparent contradictions…’

Again his train of thought had been arrested. This time by the words that he had just read and translated in his mind.

‘Daniel?’ But the people complained against me and against Jehovah because there was no water. And so I built an idol to the Snake God that was the god of the place where we settled, to appease its anger and we prayed to it for food. But Jehovah was jealous and he sent a plague against the people. And we were afflicted with boils on our skin that looked like fiery snakes. And the people came to me and begged me to take the snakes away. But I knew that the snakes on our flesh were a punishment from Jehovah so I told the people to destroy the snake idol and repent to Jehovah…

He couldn’t continue.

‘So that’s what the Snake Monument was,’ said Gabrielle.

‘It’s mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Numbers, albeit in somewhat different form – just before the reference to The Book of the Wars of the Lord in fact. Remember what I told you about the fiery serpents and Moses putting a snake on a pole so that when they looked up at it, they were cured.’

‘But that stone base was hardly what you could call a pole.’

‘I know,’ Daniel replied. ‘But pole is just a modern translation. It could be a pedestal or base. Aside from that, in order for the Israelites to see it, it must have been something big. A small serpent on a pole would hardly be visible to such a numerous band of people. But a huge stone monument on a huge base is something else.’

‘But didn’t you say it was a bronze or copper snake? Not a stone one.’

‘Yes, but that was just other people’s interpretation. Later parts of the Bible describe how the bronze snake head of Moses’ staff was used to burn incense in the temple – until it was destroyed by one of the kings of Israel. He said it was being used for idolatry. He called it the Nehustan, which is a corruption of the Hebrew for snake.’

‘Let’s go on with the translation,’ Gabrielle suggested. It was Jehovah’s will that we leave the accursed place and go into Canaan as the Jehovah-ites had done. So I sent men to spy out the land and they returned and one of them whose name was Caleb told me that it is the will of Jehovah that we enter the land of Canaan and fight for its holy soil and its fruits and its trees. But the other spies said that the men of Canaan are giants and we are like grasshoppers in their eyes.

‘What about Joshua?’

Daniel’s eyes widened.

‘Oh, come on now, Danny, I may not be a Bible scholar like you, but I know the story of the twelve spies that Moses sent to spy out the land. Ten came back with negative reports but Joshua and Caleb said it was a land flowing with milk and honey and they could beat the natives and conquer the land.’

‘Well, in this narrative there’s no Joshua, just Caleb. Oh, hold on… wait a minute…’

‘Yes?’ she said, desperate to know.

‘This next bit…’

‘What?’ The man at my right hand Joshua said to me that Caleb was a righteous man. But I am old and I know that I cannot lead the people in battle. And when I told Joshua that he must lead the people, he said that he did not wish to leave my side. He said that if I was too weak to lead the people in battle, then they would stay here with me. But now I too am stricken by the plague and I know I will soon see God face to face. So I told him to leave this place and lead the people into the land of Canaan.

He looked up at Gabrielle, unable to continue. It was Gabrielle who spoke. ‘The plague?’

‘I know.’ His tone was solemn.

‘Does that mean…’

‘You remember what Sheikh Ibrahim said about those bones in the cave?’

‘Yes.’

‘How the bones were taken to the University of Jordan and then they gave Ibrahim the silent treatment when he asked about the results?’

‘Yes,’ said Gabrielle, realizing where this was heading.

‘I think we have to go to Amman. We need to talk to that professor.’