Free Secret of the Scroll (Greg McKenzie Mysteries) by Chester D. Campbell Page A

Nevertheless, a height of 3 cubits (6 feet) and a breadth of 2½ cubits (5 feet) would keep it in proportion with the other furnishings. The Golden Candlestick’s value is defined as one talent, which at the present value of gold would be $32,492.24.
     
    I looked up. “Ten of them would be worth about three hundred and twenty thousand bucks. Not bad.”
    Dr. Welch turned to the front of the Bible. He read, “Copyright 1956. Things have changed a bit since then. A gold talent is fifteen hundred and seventy-two ounces. Figure about three hundred dollars an ounce–I’m not sure of the exact price of gold now . . . ”  He punched a few numbers into his calculator. “That makes them worth four million, seven hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. Definitely worth mounting a recovery operation.”
    I looked at my watch. Time was winding down on me. “Does the scroll say what these people did with the lampstands after they got back to Jerusalem ?” I asked.
    He looked back at the parchment, which he had flattened out completely now. It was less than a yard long. “It gets a little hazy there,” he said. “The Jews had been in revolt since 66 A.D., and the Romans under General Titus captured Jerusalem in the year 70. Then they proceeded to demolish the Temple and most of the rest of the city. Apparently this group arrived shortly after the destruction. The writer says they worked at night, digging into the rubble, and buried the lampstands, covering them with flat stones for protection. Shortly after they finished, Roman soldiers took them prisoner. Somehow this scribe–he had to have been a scribe to produce such beautiful lettering–managed to escape across the Jordan . He wrote this and planned to hide it in the hope that it would be found by a future generation. After peace had returned, they could recover the golden lampstands and use them in a new Temple .”
    Thoughts of Jill closed in. I tried to think. This unnamed Jew must have been in Jordan when he wrote the document. But where had he hidden it? And more importantly, where had they buried the lampstands? I asked Dr. Welch.
    He looked up with a smile. “I think you’ll have to go back to David Wolfson with that question.”
    “Why?”
    “The writer identified himself with the kabbalists. They’re the people who started the Torah codes business. I’ve read a little about it, but I was completely turned off by all the ridiculous claims people have been making. Among other things, some people tried to use the codes to ‘prove’ Jesus was not the Messiah. David and I have argued about all this, but one thing he did convince me of was the historical basis of biblical cryptology. In Jeremiah, for example, the word ‘Sheshach’ is used for ‘ Babylon .’ It’s done by letter substitution in a code called Atbash. Anyway, this kabbalistic encoding led to the modern development of cryptology.”
    I checked my watch again. Nearly six o’clock . My home number was set to forward calls to the cell phone, which I had stuck in my jacket pocket. But I did not want to be here when the mysterious Palestinian called. With the phone set to vibrate rather than ring, I had ignored two calls while Dr. Welch was talking. Neither was a number I needed to answer immediately. What I really needed to do was get moving.
    “Are you saying there’s some kind of code in that scroll?” I asked.
    “It’s likely. He never says where they buried the lampstands. But presumably that’s what he’s referring to when he writes: ‘The location will be found within.’ If the Romans had turned up the document, they would’ve had no idea what he meant.”
    “And you think David could decode it?”
    “Definitely. He has a computer program that can search Hebrew text and pull out coded passages.”
    I zipped up my jacket. “I’d better be on my way then,” I said. “We’ll just roll this up–”
    “Don’t do that.” He reached out to stop me. “I’ll put it between two