University of Georgia
Fifty-nine-year-old Professor Horace Golb punched the code into the electronic keypad opening the door to his laboratory. He was returning from a meeting of his financial backers where he had proudly announced that he had successfully unrolled an ancient scroll and was going to begin the process of translating it today. Their reaction to the good news was not what he expected.
He walked in, secured the door closed, and placed his small bag on the old wooden counter in the center of the lab. He fumbled in his pocket, took out a ring of keys, and flipped through each of them until he found the one he was looking for. He inserted the extra-small key into the edge of the counter and carefully turned it. He was always careful and respectful of the old table and was especially careful not to break the old key. What a headache that would be, having to find a specialized locksmith that could fix this old relic.
He slid open a thin, twenty-four-inch-long drawer that operated as a separate table once pulled out. He then reached underneath and turned two metal wing nuts on each side, locking it open. Inside the thin drawer was his new project—a freshly unfolded scroll several thousand years old. As it lay there now unrolled inside the wooden drawer, he measured it as an even twelve inches long by twelve inches wide. He named the scroll W3Q-15 for categorization. Although he had not tested it yet, he was certain that it was made of some type of metal alloy, which at this point, following his initial examination, he would most likely determine was definitely not copper. Whatever type of metal it was, it was extremely frail and he spent quite a bit of time and energy unfolding it.
He paused what he was doing and thought about their reaction during his meeting. He had not even informed them of the strange metal, so when he made the announcement, he was puzzled by the lack of enthusiasm by his secret supporters. They just glanced at each other with straight, emotionless faces and simply gave him the ‘go-ahead’ to begin the translation process. Why did they react that way? Should they not be at least pleased on some level? It was they who donated the scroll to the university three weeks ago and gave him the arduous task of unrolling and deciphering it.
As he had initially begun unrolling the scroll, he encountered an unknown type of writing which he promptly reported. Shortly afterward and after some arm-twisting, he convinced the mysterious group of backers to allow him and his new assistant to translate the new writing. It only made sense—not only for his research, but also because he was the university’s leading ancient language translator. Never mind the fact that he had never seen this particular writing before; he was still nonetheless the most qualified.
Once they agreed, they provided him a few rough translations to help him get started. Since he had not seen the writing before, he inquired who had done the initial work and they promptly told him not to ask. It often nagged at him who these new people were and how they acquired the translations. Even stranger was why the history department personnel had not bothered to ask, which he guessed had to have been the result of a healthy financial contribution.
Therefore, he secretly copied the translations, took a picture of the scroll before his last meeting, and hid them. Several times, he quietly brought up the possibility that this mysterious scroll could be one of the stolen Dead Sea Scrolls that ended up missing shortly after their discovery in Qumran in the mid-nineteen-forties. Because of his suspicions, he secretly added the Q for Qumran in the W3Q-15 designation. Fortunately, none of the university staff caught on to his little trick, and the writing was going to be categorized in the university archaic records by the end of the day.
Dr. Golb sometimes regretted bringing up that missing scroll possibility, because he swore he had been followed ever since; or was he just being paranoid—which he was known to be from time to time. Oh well, he pushed the thought away, and continued with the task that he in fact was paid to do. He reached over and pulled over a tripod with a fixed camera attached. The camera was positioned down and he checked that it was properly aimed to record the entire scroll as he now attempted to decipher.
He pulled up a stool and clicked the camera on. With the recording underway, Dr Golb leaned in and swung around an oversized, old-fashioned magnifying glass with a tarnished brass rim. He carefully moved it directly over the writing and refocused the light. Once he had his equipment lined up, he scooted back and pulled out his new list of translations. He looked back at the door to ensure that no one had snuck in and, seeing no one, placed the papers on the table.
He moved the magnifying glass to the side as he examined each character for the first time. He immediately noticed that something was not quite right. He leaned back and repositioned the magnifying glass on the first character.
Leaning forward once again, he looked at it one more time and said in a low voice, “What in the world is this?” He was not expecting what he saw. He looked closer at the first characters that appeared burned into the metal, as one would see with a modern laser printer. “Well, how about that,” he said out loud, completely surprised that he did not catch that before. He then slowly and methodically began examining each of the characters in the first row. What was written on this scroll seemed to have been done by a completely different method, one totally unfamiliar to him. He was not only examining the new writing on scroll W3Q-15 but also an entirely undiscovered writing system. If not, he thought to himself, it is a forgery.
Dr, Golb made another pass with the magnifying glass over the characters and again he concluded that this was definitely a new printing system. He found several of the individual characters were absolutely identical and quietly murmured, “This is odd,” as he looked through the glass. The only known writing method recognized from the alleged period that this scroll came from was done by individual scribes. Moreover, when scrolls were reproduced, they were simply rewritten by hand by another scribe.
He guided the magnifying lens down a few rows of writing and then down a few more until he recognized something else. “That’s more like it,” he said, sounding relieved. He was now looking at Classical Hebrew. Therefore, the first half was gibberish and the second half of this scroll was Hebrew; and written by hand.
The professor placed his notepad next to the drawer and began the process of translating the Hebrew first. As he worked his way through the first few rows, he again sensed something wrong. The first rows of Hebrew were more like he was reading a passage from George Lucas’ Star Wars. He rechecked it and began reading,
“The dark side of the force and the forces of light disguised from the majority and the ensuing battle between them...”
He made sure he was at least close on the translations and continued as fast as he could. He would look through the magnifying glass, then with his pencil write it down on his notepad. After several more minutes, his excitement was growing with each new translation. He had never encountered this type of tone before, especially in Hebrew. Suddenly, his cell phone rang with a text message. He ignored it until it rang again. He knew that it would continue ringing until he at least had checked it or turned it off. He put down his pencil, scooted back away from the table, and looked at his phone. There was just one word from a number he clearly recognized as one of his Masonic brothers: ‘RUN!’
As he read the message, not sure what to make of it, he heard a sound outside the window. He turned his head and this time he knew exactly what it was—machine gun fire!