A few days after handing the scroll over to Dr. Williams, Dima and Natasha returned to the Christian University. They found Dr. Williams just as he was leaving his office.
“Ah, the scroll discoverers!” exclaimed, Dr. Williams, shaking their hands warmly. “Thanks for coming. I’m just on my way over to the Unrolling Room. We’ve already started – I hope you don’t mind – and even at this early stage of the process I can definitely say that you have found a remarkably well-preserved, very early copy of the book of Revelation.”
The disappointment of not being present as the scroll was first unrolled quickly turned into excitement as the scroll’s identity was confirmed.
“Where are you doing the work?” asked Dima, curiously.
“You may know that the Hermitage owns many buildings scattered all over St. Petersburg. Some are used for storage, others are used for art restoration. Well, it turns out that the Hermitage owns a warehouse not far from here. When I spoke to Dr. Sergey – that’s the friend I was telling you about – he made immediate arrangements for us to use this building. And he kindly agreed to let me supervise the process.”
They headed back towards the Metro station, but turned off a side street to the right. As they walked, Dr. Williams continued talking.
“The papyrus is in remarkable condition. I was afraid it may have become too brittle and that it would collapse into dust, or at the very least tiny fragments that would then have to be painstakingly reassembled like a jigsaw with no picture to follow. But we are finding that as we unroll the scroll it is breaking up into quite sizable sections, presumably along the original joins where sheets of papyrus were glued together to form the scroll as a whole. Furthermore, the characters themselves are still quite clear and readable. It’s almost as though this scroll has not been read too many times, has not had its letters faded by repeated exposure to the Sun’s rays, but has sat in its box for nearly two millennia. Sorry for the little lecture, but what this means is that the text is proving very easy to recover. Well, this is the place.”
They stopped outside a fairly nondescript door in a typically run-down-looking red-brick building. Dr. Williams took out a key and unlocked the door. Dima noticed that the lock looked new. Presumably, Dr. Williams was taking no chances with security.
The door opened into a dingy corridor. There was a beefy security guard sitting in a tiny cubicle watching TV on an even tinier TV set. He looked up as they entered, nodded to Dr. Williams, and continued watching what looked to be a riveting game show.
“This way,” said Dr. Williams, ushering them down the corridor and up a flight of stairs. On the second level there was another dingy corridor with a few doors scattered here and there. Near the end of the corridor there was another door, but this one looked new and very, very solid. It was also locked. This time, Dr. Williams took out a transponder key, and placed it in the receptacle. When the electromagnets holding the door tightly shut switched off, he pushed open the heavy door.
“Please, enter,” said Dr. Williams.
Despite his eagerness to see what was happening, Dima allowed Natasha to enter first although he followed close behind. Dr. Williams entered and Dima heard the door close firmly behind them.
The room appeared to have been a laboratory of some kind, with long benches and the occasional sink. There were windows along the wall opposite where they had come in through which endless summer sunlight would have been pouring had it not been for the thick, black cardboard that had been placed over them. The room opened out to their right, and in this direction they saw a number of tables placed in a row surrounded by a few, dim lights on stands. At the nearest end a woman was placing large sheets of glass on top of what must have been pieces of the scroll that were already lying on some sort of backing. As they watched, she taped around the edges, carefully lifting the resulting sandwich off the table and placing it in a box nearby.
“We’re working backwards through the process, but I’m sure you’ll understand,” said Dr. Williams. “Tanya, here, is getting the scroll ready for long-term storage – and public display if it ever comes to that. As you can see, we haven’t done a lot yet.” He indicated the box into which Tanya had just placed the scroll piece. There were only three pieces there.
One man was manoeuvring a bulky piece of equipment positioned directly above the second table. As they watched, there was a sudden increase in light emanating from the machine. It lasted longer than the flash of a camera, but it was clearly imaging the pieces of scroll lying on the table below, somewhat like a photocopier. Behind the imaging equipment Dima could see a computer with another man sitting at the monitor.
“Here,” continued Dr Williams, “Boris and Sasha are making a scan of each section of the scroll. What you can’t see is that that computer is connected to the University’s network, and in another room I have a couple of my Advanced New Testament Greek course students translating the text from the scans, making detailed notes about how the text differs from other known manuscripts of Revelation as they go. We’re also making preliminary judgments about the age of the manuscript based on palaeographical considerations.”
“Excuse me,” asked Dima. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” replied Dr. Williams. “Palaeography is the study of writing. Basically, we can get a good approximation of the date of a manuscript by comparing the characters with manuscripts of known date. The way the Greek letters were written changed over the years, you see. And as I said earlier, we can already tell this particular manuscript is very old.”
At the next table a woman wearing gloves was carefully arranging pieces of the scroll with tweezers. The unrolled portion of the scroll was sitting under a glass box on the third table.
“Lyuda and I have been working here. We’ve been carefully extracting the next section of scroll, trying not to allow it to fall apart too greatly, then arranging the pieces on these sheets of glass. I was expecting this to be the hardest part of the process, but as I said, it has been surprisingly easy.”
The short tour seemed to be over.
Dima noticed on a table right up against the far wall of the room the stone box in which the scroll had been found. Dr. Williams saw him glance in that direction.
“Yes, there’s the box,” he said. “We’ll spend some time analysing it later. It may help to shed some light on the date of the scroll itself.”
Dima and Natasha looked back at the remaining part of the scroll sitting in its glass box.
“So,” Natasha said, “it really is the book of Revelation.”
“Yes, indeed. And judging from the size of the scroll, it appears to be a complete text. To think it may have been found in Ephesus. This scroll could provide us with an unprecedented window onto the original text of the book, depending on its age, of course. It may not be too far removed from the original letter the church in Ephesus received from John while he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos.”
Dima frowned slightly.
“What do you mean ‘original text’?” he asked. “Don’t we have that in our Bibles?”
“Ah, you haven’t studied at the Christian University, have you?” replied Dr. Williams. “And I’m guessing that textual criticism doesn’t feature very often in sermons, either. No, but that isn’t unusual.”
Dr. Williams looked longingly towards the scroll pieces currently being arranged by Lyuda before turning back to Dima and Natasha.
“Look, if you want, I can explain a little of it to you, but we’d better get out of here. I don’t want to disturb the work, here, you see.”
“Of course,” said Dima.
Dr. Williams spoke briefly to Lyuda, and then he walked back to the door with Dima and Natasha, unlocked it by pressing a button next to the door, then they exited the Unrolling Room. It turned out that one of the other doorways in the dingy upper corridor opened into a workers’ lounge, complete with a small kitchen. As Dr. Williams prepared some refreshments he began his explanation.
“It’s really quite simple in theory, rather complicated in practice. The text that we have in our Bibles is derived from the thousands and thousands of manuscripts of the New Testament that have been discovered all over the Mediterranean. Some manuscripts are just a book; some are just the Gospels; some are the whole thing. There are even some early manuscript fragments that are really not much more than a verse. Now, the important thing about all these manuscripts is that they are not all the same. Yes, that’s right, if you take any two manuscripts of a particular book there will be differences between them.”
Dima and Natasha must have looked a little shocked at this, for Dr. Williams continued, “This is not a problem. Far from it, by comparing all these manuscripts we can actually get rather a good idea about the original text. As they copy manuscripts, scribes occasionally make little corrections but more often they tend to make little errors. I mean, it’s not like they had computers and could just print out a second copy whenever they wanted to! No, they would have had to painstakingly copy out the text character by character, sitting on the ground, having to dip their little pen into an inkwell after nearly every third character. Now, you’ve seen the scroll. You noticed there were no word breaks? Yes? Good. And there’s no punctuation, either. So it’s hardly surprising that these little errors occur. Anyway, as I said, by comparing all these manuscripts we can deduce the original text, by knowing the sort of changes that are likely. You’ll be pleased to know that most of the differences are absolutely insignificant – slight grammatical changes, inserting the word ‘Christ’ after ‘Jesus’ – that sort of thing.”
Dr. Williams paused for breath. Dima saw his chance to ask a question.
“What would happen if you happened to have the original manuscript? Could you tell?”
“No, not really,” replied Dr. Williams. “It would just be one of the many manuscripts, with its own unique differences to all the others. However, it would hopefully be closer than all the others to the scholarly reconstruction of the original text.” When Dima and Natasha looked like they had not understood this, he continued. “For example, as part of this restoration work, we will be comparing the text of your scroll to the current text supplied by the United Bible Society – fourth edition, which explains why it’s called the UBS 4. Anyway, if we assume for the sake of the argument that your scroll is the original text, then we would hope that it would be the same as the UBS 4, thereby proving the reliability of the textual critical methodology used to derive the UBS 4 text.”
The water was ready, so Dr. Williams finished preparing the teas and coffees.
“Actually there’s a good example in Revelation,” he said, handing Dima a cup of tea. “There’s an interesting textual variant in Revelation 13:18. Most manuscripts say that the number of the Beast is 666. But a few manuscripts, some quite old and usually reliable, say 616. Which one is the original number? Basically, you have to weigh up the internal evidence – which one fits the context of the book – against the external evidence – which manuscripts are more reliable – to deduce the original text. At this point, scholars believe it was originally 666.”
“What does my… I mean, our scroll say?” asked Dima.
“We don’t know yet,” replied Dr. Williams. “We’re barely halfway through chapter one.”
There was a lengthy pause as Dima and Natasha sipped their tea and struggled to get their minds around these new concepts. Dr. Williams appeared to be slightly distracted by something. Eventually, Dima broke the silence.
“I’m guessing you would like to get back to the scroll. We should leave you to it. But can we come back again sometime?”
“That would be fine. Any time! I will make sure that the guard knows to let you in.”
Dr. Williams ushered them out the door and back into the dingy corridor.
“Allow me to thank you again,” he said as they were just about to walk down the corridor. “We are doing as careful a job as we can with this scroll.”
“We can tell,” replied Dima. “We’ll see you again, soon.”
“Until then.”
Every eye was on Loukas. With mixed feelings, Loukas was standing at the front of the room of his family’s house where the church of Ephesus met. He was holding the scroll open to the first column of close-written capitals. He took a deep breath, and then began reading:
“ ‘The revelation of Iēsus Christos, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place…’ ”
When Loukas had returned to his home after speaking with his father, Tertios the scribe had been waiting for him. Loukas had shown him the scroll, and showed him a place to sit on the floor in Loukas’ own room. Tertios had wasted no time and had begun the arduous task of copying the scroll, letter by letter. Occasionally, he had looked up and said things like, “Ioanneis, himself, wrote this down. I recognise his distinctive Sigmas.”; or, “Oh, that’s not how ‘angel’ is spelt! Gamma Gamma not Nu Gamma!”; or, “He’s good with his margins. I like a scroll with neat margins.”; or, “Ooh! What are you doing? Is this supposed to be Greek or Aramaic?” Loukas had fairly rapidly fallen asleep, and was wakened only by the scribe leaving at the end of the day when there was simply not enough light to see by.
Tertios had returned the next day and the next. However, as Stephanos had promised, the copying had been completed by Sunday; and now, here Loukas was, reading Ioanneis’ scroll to the church.
“ ‘From Ioanneis, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before the throne, and from Iēsus Christos, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.’[9]”
Already he could sense some puzzlement from those gathered there. The reference to God seemed clear enough, but who were the seven spirits? Loukas knew from later references that these were the angels of the seven churches, sent to keep watch over them.[10] But he did not stop reading to explain; they would work it out soon enough.
As he read through Ioanneis’ vision of Iēsus, he could sense everyone listening with rapt attention. They were as awe-struck as he had been when he had first read those words back on the ship. When he reached the end of that section he paused, mainly to give the people a chance to fully appreciate the glory of the One they followed, but also partly to prepare himself to read out the next part: the words addressed to the Ephesian church personally. He caught Iounia’s eyes, sitting with the women off to one side. She smiled encouragement so he continued with more boldness.
“ ‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lamp stands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.’[11]”
So far, so good, thought Loukas. People were nodding and smiling at one another. Ioanneis was right, as always, he could see them thinking. How kind of him to recognise us! Loukas continued, and the smiles were quickly replaced by frowns.
“ ‘Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place. But you have this in your favour: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.’[12]”
There was a stunned silence. He could see people sitting there with affronted looks, clearly thinking, How could Ioanneis make such a claim? How could he possibly know the strength of our love for God? But then realisation dawned: this was not Ioanneis speaking, this was Iēsus. After all Ioanneis could not come to them and remove the lamp stand, the symbol of their church, very clearly implying judgment.
With this knowledge came reflection: the church had certainly begun strongly. The apostle Paulos himself had founded the church some four decades previously. There had been amazing and miraculous signs and wonders: even handkerchiefs Paulos had used had been taken to sick people and they had been healed.[13] Evil spirits had been exorcised, one even from Loukas’ mother’s mother. There had been many conversions and these new converts had burned their scrolls of magic and sorcery to the value of fifty thousand drachmas, an unbelievably large sum of money.
Sure, there had been a backlash. Demetrios the silversmith had seen to it that Paulos was banished, never to enter the city again because of the threat of certain death by lynch mob. There had been some persecution in the years following: some businesses had been shunned, some individuals had been wrongfully accused – much as Ioanneis had been – and had been sent to prison. But things had mostly settled down. And the Ephesian church had lost much of that initial enthusiasm. Loukas looked around the room. Certainly, it was a large room as far as houses were concerned. But this was the church of Ephesus: one roomful of men and women, and a few children playing in the next room. There had not been on-going growth equal to the way the church had begun.
As the silence continued, reflection turned to repentance. There were tears in the eyes of some; many sat with heads bowed. Suddenly the silence was broken by Stephanos as he prayed on behalf of the church. Despite his own tears, Loukas smiled to himself. It seemed their lamp stand was safe.
When Stephanos finished praying, Loukas continued reading from the scroll.
“ ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’[14]”
He then read through the personal messages for the other six churches. Ioanneis had not instructed otherwise. If all the churches were aware of the issues raised then perhaps there could be some measure of accountability.
Having previously read the scroll many times Loukas was aware that after the personal letters a new section of the scroll began, emphasised by the repetition of the phrase ‘in the Spirit’[15], so he paused briefly before continuing:
“ ‘After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne…’[16]”
As Loukas continued reading, the people were rapidly caught up in the awe-inspiring description of God in heaven surrounded by the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures all of whom are there to worship God continually. In his mind, Loukas was comparing this scene with that of the Roman Emperor in his throne room, surrounded by his council, with hymnic acclamations pouring from the mouths of those around him. Domitianus had decreed that people refer to him as ‘Lord and God’; but in this vision of God on his throne Ioanneis was reminding the church that there is only one true Lord and God. He is the one with the power; he is the one who will bring justice to the world; he is therefore the true Ruler of the world, not some mere human upstart with delusions of divinity who is only able to get away with it because he has the might of Rome behind him.
Then as Loukas read out the description of the scroll in God’s hands, the one written on both the front side and the back side, and sealed with seven seals, he could see the curiosity on the faces of the people listening. What could possibly be contained in the scroll? And why was there no one in heaven or on earth who was able to open the scroll?
Loukas read out: “ ‘Then one of the Elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’[17]” Loukas personally loved this moment. It was one of several where what Ioanneis had heard and what he then sees differed significantly. The titles ‘Lion of Judah’ and ‘Root of David’ were, of course, good Scriptural references to the Jewish Messiah. And, as the Elder in the vision had said, this Messiah had triumphed. But then what Ioanneis sees is a Lamb looking as though it had been slain. The images from the Jewish Scriptures had been transformed by the startling fact that Iēsus, God’s Messiah, had been executed by the Romans. But it was precisely Iēsus’ death, and his subsequent resurrection from the dead, that made him worthy to open the scroll. This was the Messiah’s triumph, and certainly worthy of hymnic acclamations infinitely more so than the mortal Domitianus.
When Loukas reached the end of the hymns of praise to God and the Lamb he paused a trifle melodramatically before continuing: “ ‘I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals…’[18]”
“I hear the scanning is proceeding well,” said Yevgeny.
“Yes, they’re up to chapter 6 now,” replied Dima.
Dima and Yevgeny were sitting on one of the grassy banks lining the canal near Primorskaya Metro, close to Dima and Natasha’s apartment building. Around them, men and women were making the most of the brief St. Petersburg summer by sun-bathing on towels, reading novels, and drinking beer, quite oblivious to the exegetical discussion that was about to begin nearby.
“Ah, the seals,” exclaimed Yevgeny.
“That’s right. Look, can you help me out? I’m really struggling to understand this book. I mean, it’s all over the place!”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for a start there’s all these ‘sevens’ everywhere – like the seven seals, for example.”
“Yes, it is certainly not straight-forward,” said Yevgeny with a sigh.
“So what do you make of it all?”
Yevgeny thought for a minute, then he got out his Bible, something he rarely left home without.
“All right, see if this helps you a little,” he said. “Now, there are three crucial ‘sevens’: the seals, the trumpets and the bowls. Each group of seven is associated with disasters on the earth in increasing proportions. Let’s start with the seals. The first four are grouped together. As the Lamb opens these four seals the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are revealed, traditionally known as War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. And it says they were given power over a quarter of the earth to kill people by means of the sword, famine, plague and, intriguingly, wild animals. Later on, the trumpets are associated with disasters involving a third of the earth, and even later still the bowls usher in total destruction.”
“Yes,” said Dima. “I had noticed that.”
“The fifth and sixth seals sort of go together, too. The fifth one informs the church that they will face martyrdom, but that the number of people who will be martyred has been limited by God. Simple, really. But the sixth seal is a controversial one.”
Yevgeny turned to the relevant page and read.
“ ‘I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.’[19] Now, it sure sounds like the end of the world, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. Are you implying that it’s not?”
“Well, a lot of stuff continues to happen past this point, so it can hardly be the end of history. And we can’t be talking about the destruction of the sun and moon, either. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but the fourth trumpet involves them both. And the third and fifth trumpets involve other stars falling from the sky. So you can’t really say that the sixth seal means the end of the world.”
“Well, why say it at all, then?” asked Dima, perplexed.
“The answer comes from recognising that the events associated with the sixth seal are all straight out of the Old Testament. John is practically quoting a whole lot of verses from the prophets of Israel and Judah. They used this sort of cosmic disaster language all the time when they were referring to the destruction of cities and countries.”
Dima must have looked dubious. Yevgeny started flicking through his Bible.
“Let me give you some examples,” he said. “Let’s see… in a passage about imminent judgment coming upon the city of Babylon, Isaiah chapter 13 verse 10 says: ‘The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light, The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.’ Then, in chapter 34 verse 4, in a passage talking about judgment coming upon the nations surrounding Judah, Isaiah says: ‘All the stars of heaven will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shrivelled figs from the fig tree.’ Notice the similarity to Revelation?”
Dima nodded as Yevgeny flicked forward to Ezekiel. “Another one. Ezekiel chapter 32 verses 7-8: ‘When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you; I will bring darkness over your land.’ That’s in a judgment upon Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. And… where is it?… Ah, yes. Joel chapter 2 verse 31: ‘The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.’ Now that’s in a passage that Peter said was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost!”
After a few moments’ thought, Dima asked, “OK, so these prophets predicted serious cosmic disasters, which presumably didn’t happen, even if the accompanying judgments did. Isn’t it possible that they still had expected the cosmic disasters to really happen and were disappointed?”
“I think an extended case-study will help at this point,” said Yevgeny, with a smile. “Jeremiah is a great example of why that isn’t the case.”
He flicked through his Bible until he came to Jeremiah.
“Now, where is it? Somewhere near the start… Ah, yes, here it is. In chapter 4, Jeremiah announces that a major disaster will come upon Jerusalem from the north. But in verse 23 he says this: ‘I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens and their light was gone.’ Jeremiah uses words that appear in Genesis chapter 1 before God created anything, so what he envisages here is a reversal of creation: an ‘uncreation’, if you will. Now, later on in the book, Jeremiah has serious doubts about the correctness of his prophetic ministry. Here, in chapter 20 verses 7 and 8 he says: ‘O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.’ Then in verse 10: ‘I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Report him! Let’s report him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him!” ’ In other words, they were looking for a chance to denounce Jeremiah as a false-prophet!”
Yevgeny took a moment to catch his breath.
“But, as you know, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians just a little while after that, and Jeremiah basically says, ‘I told you so!’ He doesn’t complain to God, ‘O Lord, why did you not darken the heavens?’ And his opponents don’t respond by saying: ‘You’re still a false prophet because the sun still shines during the day, and the moon still shines at night, and all the stars are still in the sky, despite the fact you said they wouldn’t!’ No, everyone knew that the cosmic disaster language Jeremiah had used was simply a way of underlining the enormity of the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s quite similar to today when we say that some political event – like the fall of the Berlin wall, for example – was an ‘earth-shattering’ event. This is not meant literally. It’s metaphorical.”
“Well, I guess that’s reasonable. So how does all that apply to the sixth seal?”
“Well, it seems that John, by means of these allusions to the Old Testament, is talking about major political upheavals, like the sort of thing that happened when the Roman Emperor Nero killed himself. Since there were a few people who thought they deserved to rule Rome, the Roman Empire was plunged into civil war for an entire year. Now look at what comes straight after John’s cosmic disaster language: ‘Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” ’[20] Again, there are Old Testament allusions here, but the point is clear: major political upheavals.”
“Fair enough,” said Dima with a nod.
“Good. Now there’s quite a gap between the sixth and seventh seals, but when the seventh one is finally opened, instead of the cataclysmic end of the world that you might expect there is a rather anticlimactic half an hour of silence. Then the trumpets are handed out to seven angels who then proceed to sound them. Again, there is a big gap between the sixth and seventh trumpets. When the seventh trumpet is finally sounded there’s some singing! Again, not really the end you would expect. Then there is a whole lot of detailed stuff about a woman who gives birth to a son who is then pursued by a dragon. Then we have the beasts from the earth and the sea. Finally, we come to the seven bowls, and what really appears to be the end of everything, but we’re only up to chapter 16 with 6 more chapters to go including the enigmatic 1000 years.”
“Thank-you,” replied Dima, somewhat sarcastically. “That has cleared it all up for me.”
“I haven’t finished yet,” said Yevgeny with a laugh. “The big question is how are these three groups of seven – the seals, the trumpets and the bowls – related. Are they chronological, meaning did John expect the end of the world to be preceded by successive waves of earthly disaster of increasing magnitude? It’s hard to argue this given that certain events are definitely not in chronological order, such as the birth of the Messiah in chapter 12 and the fact that five of the seven heads of the beast from the sea in chapter 13 stand for kings already dead. Others have argued for a sort of ‘concertina chronology’. That is, the seven bowls occur during the period covered by the seventh trumpet, and that the seven trumpets occur during the period covered by the seventh seal. It’s like John focuses in more and more on the end, providing more and more details. And I guess that’s possible, but it doesn’t really avoid the problem of the events that are out of order.
“Personally, I prefer to think of John’s presentation as artistic. I read this in a commentary back during my studies at the Christian University, and I liked it so much I wrote it down here in the back of my Bible: ‘John is like an expert guide in an art gallery, lecturing to students about a vast mural. First he makes them stand back to absorb a general impression, then he takes them close to study the details. In John’s symbolic language seven is the number of completeness, and the sevenfold visions – seals, trumpets, and bowls – are his general views of the totality of divine judgment. The unnumbered visions are his close-ups, his studies of detail.’ The commentary was written by G. B. Caird, and I would highly recommend it to you, except that it’s only in English.”[21]
“That’s fine. I have an English-Russian dictionary.”
“Of course you do. If you’re interested, I’m sure Dr. Williams would allow you to borrow it from their library.”
“I’ll make sure I ask him about it. Well, you’re right. You have helped me a little. But it still seems pretty grim: all that death and destruction.”
“True. But it has a purpose. You need to place yourself back in time and imagine how the early church would have received this vision. I think it is extremely interesting that in the last four decades of the first century, the following disasters had occurred. There had been some serious earthquakes in 60 AD. In 62 AD The Roman army had suffered a humiliating defeat on the eastern frontier at the hands of the Parthians. More specific to the church, there had been the persecution of Christians that followed the fire of Rome in 64 AD. I’ve already mentioned Nero’s suicide in 68 AD, which initiated a year of political chaos and battles as four rival claimants battled it out for the imperial throne. Then from 66 to 70 AD there was the four-year horror of the Jewish war that ended with Jerusalem in ruins. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD creating a pall of darkness so widespread that people feared the imminent end of the world. Finally, there had been a serious grain famine in 92 AD. Now, if you had lived through all of that, what would you make of the events accompanying the seven seals?”
Dima stopped for a moment, thinking.
“Well,” he answered, eventually, “it would sound pretty much like everyday life.”
“Precisely!” exclaimed Yevgeny. “But with one significant fact: all these events occur because God wants them to, and only as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross. They are all part of God’s divine plan of salvation, even the martyrdom of some in the church. John is trying to tell his churches that God is in control.”
It was a warm, sunny day when Loukas set out for Smyrna. He had chosen to go on foot, for while the hills were many and very steep in places, the Romans had built excellent roads through them enabling pedestrians to achieve quite a rapid pace if they so chose. He had decided against taking a ship; it was just too uncertain what with the possibility of shipwreck. The scroll he carried to read in the other six churches of Asia was too important to take any such risks.
On his journey Loukas was going to be accompanied by Artemas and Hermas, two young men who had also become Christians through the ministry of Ioanneis. The three were good friends and Loukas was looking forward to long discussions as they travelled along the road. A few people from the church had come with them as far as the gates of the city to send him off, most notably his brother Markos, their father Theseus, his fiancée Iounia and her father Stephanos.
Stephanos was the first to give the three travellers each a strong squeeze around the shoulders with his long arms. As he hugged Loukas, he spoke softly in his ear.
“Loukas, my son-to-be, thank-you for reading Ioanneis’ scroll to us. I know the church as a whole was quite unresponsive: there was a lot to take in, and there is much to think about as the days grow darker. But I know they will take it to heart. I have already had some come to me asking for my legal assistance should they be arrested for refusing to worship the Emperor.”
Loukas frowned at the thought, but Stephanos continued, “Have no fear! We will take on the Beast from the land! And we will be victorious in the end for it has been foreseen.”
“Thank-you, my father-to-be,” replied Loukas with a smile. “Look after Iounia for me.”
Stephanos laughed heartily. “Indeed! That is still my job right up until your wedding day. And then I will demand the same from you!”
He gave Loukas’ shoulders another squeeze and stepped back.
Theseus stepped forward, somewhat awkwardly. Loukas had been afraid of his response to the scroll and had not been surprised to see him hurry from the church meeting room – his own house! – as soon as Loukas had read the last words. In the couple of days since then Theseus had avoided speaking to Loukas, but Loukas had caught him glowering in his direction every once in a while. Clearly, the impact of the scroll had taken a personal toll. But now, here he was, smiling shyly at his son.
“Loukas, forgive me,” he began. “I am afraid I have taken out my grief on you, the messenger, rather than reserve it for the One who sent the message. These last days I have been wrestling with what has been asked of me. I might even have to abandon all commerce with Rome and her subjects! And I a merchant! I have asked myself how is that possible? Does God want me to give up altogether?”
There was a brief pause. Loukas could well believe such thoughts had been passing through his father’s mind; they had been passing through his own, since he was the son of a merchant and had expected to take over the family business one day.
“But, last night as I lay tossing and turning in complete and utter sleeplessness something occurred to me,” continued Theseus. “It is not just I who will be prevented from participating in commerce with Rome; everyone in the church must as well. So it will be up to Christian merchants like me to become suppliers for Christians everywhere, to help them through the storm to come, bartering food and goods between those in the countryside and those of us living in cities. And this has revolutionised me! It has given me a mission! Where before I saw merely profits, now I see needs. So thank-you for your faithfulness in carrying out Ioanneis’ instructions. I see now that you were afraid of my reactions – and rightly so! – but you read the scroll regardless. Thank-you.”
Loukas, with tears in his eyes, gave his father a long hug. “Of course,” he replied, “I look forward to returning to Ephesus after this reading tour is over and assisting you in this great task.”
“I will await your return with great anticipation,” Theseus said with a smile. “May the Lord Iēsus Christos our Saviour go with you and protect you on your journey.”
“Indeed,” replied Loukas, as his father stepped back to stand next to Stephanos.
Then Markos stepped forward. “I don’t see why I can’t come with you,” he began. “I’m old enough, surely!”
“Yes, you are,” replied Loukas, “but someone has to stay with Mother and Father, you know that.”
Markos shrugged. “I guess so.”
“And it won’t be for long, anyway.” He gave his brother a playful punch on the arm then received one back graciously. As Markos returned to his father’s side, they both rubbed their arms where the punches had fallen: it would be something to remember the other by, at least for a little while.
Finally, it was Iounia’s turn. Without saying a word, she simply stood and stared into Loukas’ eyes. Gently, he brushed her hair with his hand, moving some wayward strands away from her face. Then, he picked up her hand and placed it on his heart.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” he said.
“I know,” she replied. She bent forward, and kissed him on each cheek, tasting the saltiness of his tears. “I’ll be praying for you.”
“And I you,” he said.
With that, she pulled away. When she returned to stand next to her father, Stephanos placed his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on his chest, as if she could bear its weight no more.
Loukas’ arm felt heavy, too, as he lifted it in a final wave of farewell. Then, he, Artemas and Hermas set off along the paved road that went straight as an arrow down the grassy hill away from the city of Ephesus and everything and almost everyone that Loukas held dear. The parting was made so much more difficult by the fact that no one quite knew what would happen to them all as persecution increased. Loukas did not know what he would return to find; he could but trust that God truly was in control.
At first, the going was quite easy. Once it had descended the hill upon which Ephesus was built, the road meandered gently up the Cayster Valley for some distance. Loukas, Artemas and Hermas strolled quickly along the smooth flagstones that made up the typical Roman road surface. There were a few other travellers on the road: mostly farmers pushing crude wagons full of produce heading back into Ephesus. Occasionally, a city official riding a horse would pass, the speed of the horse depending on the urgency of the rider’s business. Twice during that first day’s travel they were stopped at check-points manned by soldiers. However, they were only going through the motions of ascertaining people’s reasons for being on the road, and they were quite satisfied with Loukas’ cover story: he was searching for a new date supplier on behalf of his father. Theseus’ need of one was, at least, true.
As night was falling, the three friends sought refuge in a tiny hamlet some distance from the road. Artemas had relatives living there – an uncle on his mother’s side – so they were gladly welcomed in and fed a reasonable meal before being given a blanket each and shown a place to lie down for the night. At first, Loukas had trouble getting to sleep. The floor of the sleeping platform was a lot harder than his mat at home. As he tossed and turned trying to find a position that did not result in one of his bones sticking painfully into the floor, his mind was concerned with the scroll he was carrying, and the affect it was having on the church in Ephesus. He thought about Stephanos and those who had come to him expecting to be arrested in the not-too-distant future. He thought about his father planning to operate a merchant business without having the special document from the Temple of the Revered Ones. They were doing these things because Ioanneis’ scroll had foretold imminent disasters but had also set them a challenge: to stand firm against the Evil One in the heavens and his beastly minions on earth. When he finally drifted off to a sleep, his dreams were filled with beasts with hundreds of horns and claws dripping with human blood.
The next morning Loukas woke with a fierce headache, but a few splashes of icy, cold water from the trough near the door of the house helped to clear away most of the pain. Artemas’ uncle gave them some milk and figs for their breakfast and some bread and cheese for the road. After eating with the family, they made their farewells, and descended to the road to continue their journey.
They had not walked far when Hermas, who had been strangely silent for much of the previous day, asked a question: “Loukas, you’re a part of a guild, right?”
“Well,” replied Loukas, “my father is – the guild of merchants – but I’m not officially a member yet. He hasn’t put my name forward. I think he’s waiting for my eighteenth birthday or my wedding, whichever happens first.” When Hermas did not immediately say anything further Loukas asked, “Why do you ask?”
Hermas frowned. “Well, I’m a member of the weaver’s guild. All apprentices are joined up straight away, whether you want to or not.” He shrugged. “I guess everyone wants to, so it just sort of happens automatically. Even I wanted to. Until you went and read that scroll in church, that is…” He lapsed into silence.
Loukas was aware of the problem: attendance at temple feasts. It had not really been an issue with him since he was not a member of a guild; and anyway, his father practically ran the guild of merchants so such a situation would rarely come up. However, those in the church who were members of other guilds faced a serious problem. Guilds would often get together and have a meal. There would be a number of long-winded speeches that would still be received with warmth and appreciation. Perhaps there would be an award for the best artisan, who would be presented with an appropriately shaped clay figurine or special garment, followed by more long-winded speeches. As the evening wore on, and the wine continued to flow in liberal quantities, stories and jokes would be told to the accompaniment of much laughter and back-slapping. Those of a more serious disposition might prefer to conduct business meetings on the side; almost all of the most important deals were made at such gatherings. But the major problem for those members who also happened to be Christians was that these feasts were always held in pagan temples, and the meat on the tables had previously been offered to the god or gods associated with that particular temple. Furthermore, as part of the proceedings, attendees would be expected to participate in the worship of the deity in question.[22]
This problem was hardly new. Stephanos would occasionally reminisce to Loukas about the day when a letter had been read out in church. It had originally been addressed to the church in Corinth, but the letter had been widely disseminated in the decades following. In that letter, the great apostle to the Gentiles, Paulos himself, had forbidden Christians from participating in temple feasts: ‘the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.’[23] At the time, there had been an outcry, since everyone – especially the richer members of the congregation – were members of guilds. However, most had come to terms with it, and had found ways to avoid the feasts, despite the cost to their careers within the guilds. Some had even felt it was allowable to attend such feasts as long as they refrained from eating or drinking. Stephanos, for one, had thought this went against the spirit of Paulos’ words, and since he was a lawyer and Loukas’ future father-in-law, Loukas had agreed wholeheartedly with him.
There had even been a few who had said it was fine to not only eat the meat as well, but also perform any rituals that were required. These were the followers of Nicolaus. The Ephesian church had rejected this teaching and excommunicated anyone who refused to recant; Loukas had heard that some of these excommunicants had settled in some of the other cities in Asia.
But recently things had got worse. When the temples being used to host these guild feasts were temples dedicated to one of the gods, it may have been frowned upon if you ‘had other commitments’ on the day of a feast, but when the temple was dedicated to the worship of the Emperors, then such a refusal was considered treason.
More than ten years ago, many of the wealthy families from Ephesus and some of the surrounding cities and towns of Asia had made a cooperative effort to honour the emperors of the Flavian dynasty. They had sent a delegation to the Senate in Rome requesting permission to construct a temple dedicated to the worship of the then emperor Domitianus, his recently deceased predecessor and elder brother Titus, and their father Vespasian who had ruled Rome successfully for ten years after he had seized power from out of the chaos following the Emperor Nero’s suicide. Not surprisingly, this delegation had been granted their request. Immediately upon their return to Ephesus work commenced on a temple complex that rivalled all other temples within the city walls, and nearly outshone the wonder of the world that was the Temple of Artemis. Once this temple was completed, it became one of the most popular places for guild feasts. Also not surprisingly, many of the Christians who refused to attend feasts at the Temple of the Revered Ones, as it was euphemistically known, were either fined, imprisoned or exiled, depending on the mood of the magistrate assigned to the case on the day. Stephanos had been kept quite busy defending his fellow Christians and trying to alleviate their sentences.
Now, Ioanneis’ letter was predicting that the situation was about to deteriorate further: the routine sentence imposed upon those who refused to participate in worshipping the Emperor would be death. But the letter had also praised the Ephesian church for their rejection of the Nicolaitans. Clearly with the increased pressure, such teaching would become far more tempting.
All of this flowed through Loukas’ mind as Hermas’ silence continued. They had come to a ford, where the road crossed paths with a shallow river. Loukas and his companions had their feet cooled as they traversed the ford. Once on the other side, however, the road continued on, winding gently across the dry plains leading into Smyrna. They had a drink from the river just up-stream from the ford, and Loukas quickly filled up the water skins they had been carrying. Then, as he turned back to the road, he took a deep breath, in preparation both for the last stage of their journey and his answer to Hermas.
“I agree, it isn’t fair. What they have done to us is terrible; what they will do to us soon will be a travesty. But we must remain faithful to our Lord and Saviour Iēsus Christos. Remember what I read? ‘When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.’[24]”
“Yes,” replied Hermas, testily. “And it doesn’t make me feel any less scared you reminding me…”
“But it should!” interrupted Loukas. “Don’t you see what it means? Our Lord will come and judge those who perpetrate these crimes against us! He will avenge the blood of the martyrs!”
There was a lengthy silence as they continued to trudge along the road, the cool water of the ford long forgotten.
“Well,” said Loukas eventually, “I for one am prepared to die if that is what it takes to remain true to Iēsus; for I know that Iēsus in return will remain true to his word through the prophet Ioanneis: Rome will fall!”
The further away from Ephesus they had gone, the less people they had seen on the road, and they were still many hours’ walk from Smyrna. Fortunately, there was no one within earshot to hear Loukas’ words, words that could only have been perceived as treason by anyone whose allegiance was to Rome.
Dima had almost finished preparing dinner, pelmeni – a traditional Russian dish of minced meat wrapped in a hard pastry – boiled in chicken stock, when Natasha came home from a day out with friends. He knew she was about to unlock the front door of their apartment because he had heard the beep that the domophone made when she placed her key in the lock of the downstairs security door. So he served up two big bowls of pelmeni and placed a large dollop of sour cream on top.
“I’m home,” she called out from the entryway.
“Perfect timing,” replied Dima. “Dinner’s ready.”
After Natasha had changed from her street shoes into slippers, they both sat down at their tiny dining table and began to eat.
“So you had fun?” asked Dima.
“Yes,” replied Natasha. “I really love the Hermitage.”
“What did you see this time?”
“Well, Sveta wanted to photograph a few of the Rembrandts, so we started there. Of course, there was quite a crowd around ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’ but we waited our turn and she got a good picture.” Natasha ate some more of the pelmeni before continuing. “I just wanted to see the French Impressionists again.”
“But you see them every time!”
“And why not? They’re brilliant, especially the Van Goghs. Anyway, from there we went down to the Roman statues and wound our way through to the exit. Then we had coffee in a café on Nevsky.”
“Speaking of Roman statues, Dr. Williams called.”
“And what did ‘Ed’ have to say?” asked Natasha.
“Well, he just wanted to let us know that they are up to chapter 14 now.”
“What’s so special about that? It’s not like they’re anywhere near finished yet.”
“No, that wasn’t the point. It means they’ve just done the number of the Beast. Remember his little example of textual variants? Well, our scroll has 666 not 616.”
“That’s good, is it?” asked Natasha uncertainly.
“Yes,” nodded Dima excitedly. “And Dr. Williams said he thinks our scroll is very early, probably dating back to the beginning of the second century at least.” As Natasha cleared away their dishes, Dima continued. “He said that our scroll matches up extremely closely to the UBS 4 text. There have been a few differences, but on the whole, our scroll is almost word for word the same as the scholarly reconstruction.”
“What does that mean?”
“Basically, it means that our scroll could well be one of the earliest scrolls of the book of Revelation. Its text could be the original text, the one that all the other copies were derived from.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” replied Natasha.
“I didn’t either until Dr. Williams explained it to me. Remember when he said that as scribes copied the text they introduced changes, either inadvertently or deliberately?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you start with the UBS 4 text, you can explain how all the other variants came about. And our scroll’s text is pretty much the same as the UBS 4 text.”
“Is that why he thinks it’s so old?”
“Yes, I think so. He also said that the box we found the scroll in is very old, perhaps carved during the first century, but that doesn’t necessarily make the scroll that old.”
Natasha quickly washed the dishes, stacking the wet things in a drying rack conveniently located above the sink.
“When will they finish?” she asked Dima as he prepared coffee.
“He said it would be soon, assuming that the scroll is intact. He also said he was going to give us a copy on a DVD. He’s going to put on all the scans and their translation into Russian and English.”
Natasha chuckled to herself. “You’re a bit excited about that, aren’t you?”
Dima nodded. “You can tell, can you?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t wait to have a good look at it. To think, we – along with my great-great-grandfather – may have found the original scroll of Revelation! I wonder how it came to be hidden away in that hole in Ephesus? After all, it should have been read in all seven of the cities mentioned.”
“Maybe, it only got as far as Ephesus.”
“Maybe,” said Dima sadly. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Once again, Loukas found himself standing at the front of a church gathering with the eyes of everyone firmly fixed to him. Once again, he took a deep breath, and began reading:
“ ‘The revelation of Iēsus Christos, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place…’ ”
It had taken them two days of strenuous walking, but they had finally trudged through the gates in the walls surrounding Smyrna a few days before. Loukas had been to Smyrna a couple of times previously, on business for his father, so he knew who the leaders in the church were. They, of course, knew Ioanneis through his itinerant preaching ministry and were only too glad to hear how he was doing in exile. Over the intervening few days between Loukas’ arrival and the Sunday gathering there had been intense anticipation for what Ioanneis had written in the scroll. However, the only person Loukas allowed to look at the scroll was the scribe appointed to make a copy, a young man by the name of Polycarp.
As Loukas began reading the section explicitly directed at the congregation sitting before him he could sense a stillness come over them.
“ ‘To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.’[25]”
There was much nodding of heads at this point. Clearly, these people had been suffering for their faith, and it was the Jews living in the city – ones who did not recognise Iēsus as the Messiah – that were causing trouble. Loukas knew well enough that Jews were exempt from participation in the worship of other gods, and that included Emperor worship. Until very recently, the Christians had tried to appear as though they were still a sect of Judaism. But this had become very difficult to maintain, especially when Jews were actively separating themselves from Christians, even to the point of denouncing individuals to the civil authorities as ones practising a superstitio – an illegal religion, one not officially recognised by the authorities. This had been true in Smyrna, from what Loukas had heard, resulting in some persecution. One practical upshot of all this had been the expulsion of many Christians from their respective guilds resulting in them being unable to practice their trades. When Ioanneis referred to the church as poor, he meant it in a monetary sense.
“ ‘Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.’[26]”
There was a reflective silence at this. Loukas could see tears in the eyes of many people. But there were some smiles, too. And he could also see that a few, those who were smiling through their tears, understood the significance of ‘ten days’; it meant that the persecution had been limited by Iēsus, that it would not last forever. He would not allow the church’s enemies, inspired and directed by Satan himself, to triumph over his people. So he had placed bounds upon that persecution. Knowing this would make it a little easier to bear.
The other factor in bearing the approaching persecution was the reward for perseverance. The crown of life! No second death! This congregation well knew, stemming from Paul’s letters and the Gospels, the church’s teaching on the final judgment: that all people would be resurrected at the end of history to face the ultimate Judge, and that those who were judged against would perish forever. Even martyrdom was bearable knowing that you were safe from that second, and permanent, death.
Having given the people a chance to ponder these things for a while, Loukas continued reading. Again he could sense them respond in wonder to the description of God on his throne and the Lamb looking as though it had been slain. He knew they understood the significance of the Seals by the nodding of heads and the occasional whispered comment as someone asked their neighbour for clarification.
But as Loukas read about the sealing of the 144,000 – 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel – followed by the vision of the uncountable multitude of people from every nation, tribe, people and language, he could hear the murmured questions and when he looked up from the scroll he could see their puzzled expressions. He did not stop reading, however. He wanted the people to hear the scroll read out straight through so that they would get the whole picture clear in their minds before stopping to deal with any problematic details.
He was not surprised that the stunned silence that immediately followed the concluding words of the scroll was eventually broken by a question: “So who are the 144,000?”
Loukas’ voice was feeling rather sore after such a long reading session. However, he well knew from the scroll that these people would very soon be facing vicious persecution and that many of them would indeed be killed for their faith in Iēsus. Consequently, this was a vitally important part of the picture for them. And not just for them. Loukas looked over to where his two travelling companions were sitting, and caught Hermas’ eye.
“You might have been wondering why there was such a long time between the sixth and seventh seal being opened.” There were a few nods. “Well, this was to provide you with an answer to the question asked by the kings of the earth and all the powerful people hiding in the caves from the disasters of the first six seals. Remember they asked, ‘For the great day of God’s wrath has come, and who can stand?’[27] Well, the 144,000 are those who can stand. They are those who have been sealed by God so that they do not succumb to those disasters. But they are sealed for a different fate.”
Loukas suddenly realised he was preaching. It was not something he had done before. He had always thought of himself as a merchant, like his father and his father before him. He had certainly not considered a leadership role in the church, not at his young age. Yet, here he was, exhorting a congregation of believers! It caused him to pause briefly, wondering how much Ioanneis had known in advance.
“But you have to recognise something important. This is one of those situations where what Ioanneis heard and what he saw differed. He heard the angels reading out a military census, like one straight out of the histories of the nation of Israel. But what he saw was the uncountable multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language.”
Loukas started rolling the scroll back to the beginning, something he would have to do anyway at some point, looking for the place in the scroll he was talking about. Eventually, he found it and read out for all to hear again: “ ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’[28]” He looked up from the scroll. “In other words, the Scriptural image of the army of Israel has been transformed into an army of martyrs. Those of you who suffer martyrdom will be there! And listen to these promises.” He continued reading. “ ‘Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’[29]”
This time there were no puzzled glances, just a solemn nodding of heads with tears in many eyes. Now Loukas could see they understood; and again, he had a sense that this church’s lamp stand was safe. They would suffer persecution, but they would endure and gain the crown of life. Satan would have his way for a short time, but he would be defeated in the end.
Loukas glanced across at Hermas and saw that he, too, was crying freely. But he was also smiling through his tears.
“It’s done!”
These were the words that emerged from the telephone receiver when Dima received a call from Dr. Williams one chilly autumn afternoon. Almost without waiting to hang up the telephone, Dima threw on a coat, grabbed his backpack, and rushed out the door.
Sitting on the Metro train, he reached into his backpack for the earphones of his portable CD player. He pushed the tiny button that would start the CD playing but nothing happened. It was then that he realised he had left the apartment too quickly to have remembered to bring a CD as well.
Oh well, he thought, at least it also picks up FM radio.
He pulled out the CD player itself and switched it over to FM. But all he could hear was a faint static; FM stations cannot be picked up in the Metro, since it is so far underground. He put the CD player away and whiled away the time reading the advertisements on the walls of the train, mentally translating them into English to keep himself in practice.
Eventually he arrived at Narvskaya station. Impatiently tapping the arm of the escalator he slowly rose to the surface of the city and then hurried through the darkening streets to the Christian University. It was after 5pm but the front door was unlocked. He made his way up to Dr. Williams’ office and knocked on the door.
“Come in!”
He opened the door and entered the office.
“Ah, Dima, good to see you.”
“Thanks for calling. You said it was done?”
“Yes,” replied Dr. Williams, “the scanning is finished. And the manuscript was entire: every word was there right to the end. Truly amazing! For a scroll to be that old and complete is a miracle.”
“So you do think it’s old, then?” asked Dima excitedly.
“Dima,” Dr. Williams said solemnly, “every day I feel more and more certain that this scroll is the very first one ever written, the original manuscript from the very hand of John!”
Dima could not contain his grin.
“I’ve been in contact with a palaeography expert,” continued Dr. Williams, “and he was so interested he’s flying in to St. Petersburg at his own expense as soon as he can get his visa organised.”
“Goodness!”
“Yes, so he should be able to give a more definitive dating. Until then, I’d date it to the early second century at the latest.”
There was a pause in the conversation. Finally, Dima said, “You mentioned you had something to give me?”
“Oh yes, I’m making up a DVD data disk for you.” Dr. Williams indicated with a casual wave of his hand the computer screen sitting on his desk. “I’m putting on it all the scans so you will be able to see every last inch of the scroll, and I’ve included the translation of the scroll into English and Russian. Lyuda did the Russian translation, you know, the girl helping me with the preparing of the scroll. Anyway, it’s all on the disk, just as soon as it finishes burning. The scans take up quite a lot of memory, hence the need for a DVD rather than a CD, and why it has been working away for what feels like hours.”
Suddenly, there was a chiming sound followed by the noise a computer drive makes as it ejects a disk.
“Ah, it’s finished. Perfect timing. Now we can head home.” Dr. Williams reached underneath his desk to where the computer was and retrieved the disk. Taking a permanent marker he carefully wrote on the upper surface of the disk: ‘Scans and translations of the papyrus scroll of Revelation (Ephesus: April 1885).’ “That way you won’t get it confused with any other DVD data disks you may have lying around at home. Now, where did I put the case?” He looked around his desk, but could see nothing. Then he frowned. “Oh that’s right, Sasha gave me the disk from his supply cabinet and he didn’t give me a case. Darn! How can you take it home without it getting scratched?” He continued to look for a case in one of the drawers of his desk, but was somewhat hampered by the fact he was still holding the disk in one of his hands.
Dima had an idea.
“I know,” he said. “I brought my CD player with me and forgot to put in a CD.”
“Excellent,” exclaimed Dr. Williams, anticipating the direction of Dima’s train of thought. “You can just put the disk in the player for the trip home and then you can transfer it to a proper case. I assume you have something suitable?”
“I think I’ll be able to find something,” replied Dima, opening his backpack to retrieve the portable CD player.
“Well then, here it is.” Dr. Williams handed the disk over to Dima, who placed it carefully in the player and then closed its lid.
“Right,” said Dr. Williams cheerfully. “Let me accompany you out.” He switched his computer off, placed a few books and what looked like student essays into his own backpack and then came out from behind his desk. Dima clipped the CD player to his belt, under his coat.
“Will that be OK?” asked Dr. Williams, watching.
“Yes, safer than my backpack,” replied Dima. “I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Fair enough. OK, let’s go.”
Dr. Williams ushered Dima out of the office, locked the door after them, then together they walked down the corridor to the stairwell.
“Where are you headed?” asked Dr. Williams.
“The Metro,” Dima said.
“Ah, same with me! My home is down the Yellow line and the Metro really is the easiest way to get home, especially when it starts getting cold and dark.”
As Dr. Williams said this they reached the main entrance and stepped out into the dark and rather chilly autumn evening. People were making their hurried way along the street, most heading for the Metro station. Dima and Dr. Williams joined them.
“I’m on the Green line, myself,” said Dima, eventually.
“Yet here we are on the Red line!” exclaimed Dr. Williams, as they walked into the ground-level atrium of Narvskaya station. It was not as cold inside and as they descended the escalator and the temperature rose Dima undid the buttons of his coat so that he would not get too hot. Once they got down to the platforms they found a place about half-way along the platform and placed their backpacks on the ground between them to wait for the next train. Judging by the number of people waiting Dima thought that they would not have to wait long. Sure enough, within a few minutes a train arrived. When the doors opened they could see that the carriage was quite crowded, but there was room for more, so Dima and Dr. Williams, having picked up their backpacks, squeezed on. The doors shut with a bang and the train quickly accelerated into the tunnel.
Dima happened to be standing facing the map of the St. Petersburg Metro system. He quickly located the station they had just left and mentally tracked his way home, making the switch from the Red line to the Green line at Ploshad Vosstaniya. But then he remembered the short cut. It is possible to avoid several stations by changing to the Blue line at Technologichesky Institute and then changing to the Green line at Nevsky Prospect. What made it worthwhile was that the change at Technologichesky Institute involved simply walking across the platform since at this station – unlike at any of the other crossover points in the St. Petersburg Metro system – the Red and Blue lines travel in parallel in the same direction. As the train was just then leaving the station immediately prior to Technologichesky Institute Dima leaned over and spoke to Dr. Williams.
“I’m going to take a short cut home. I’ll speak to you soon.”
Dr. Williams raised his eyebrows, glanced at the transport map, then nodded.
“Well, goodbye then, Dima.”
“Goodbye, Dr. Williams.”
“Please, call me Ed.”
“OK, goodbye Ed.”
At that moment the train began to pull into Technologichesky Institute. Dima was pleased to see another train pulling in at the platform directly opposite from his own train; he would not even have to wait, so long as he could get across quick enough. But in the end he made it easily: the doors of his train opened first; he was able to get out amongst the initial bunch of people; and then he sauntered across to the opposite platform arriving just as the doors of that train were opening. After waiting for the emerging passengers to disembark, he got on the train.
Right, he thought. Blue line to Nevsky Prospect. In case he might have dropped something during the brief run across the platform, he went through a mental check-list, touching his pockets as he went: backpack, apartment keys, CD player, wallet, travel pass, wrist-watch; all there.
The doors closed with a bang and the train moved quickly off. The station he needed to get off at would be the second stop, so he stayed close to the doors. This train was also very crowded as people made their way home after a long day of work. In the middle of the carriage a salesman starting shouting, hawking some world maps to a captive audience. Dima had seen him at other times on the Metro, always selling something different each time. In fact, he had bought a couple of packets of bandaids off the guy a few months before. Put simply, the man was good at what he did. He had a strong voice, able to be heard above the roar of the train, his spiel was always convincing, and every time Dima had seen him he always made a sale. Even today, there were a few people who had not realised their need for a brightly coloured map of the world, displaying the principal exports of countries by means of humorous cartoons, until this salesman had drawn their attention to it. They pulled out some money from the deepest recesses of their clothing and handed it over to the man as he made his way up the carriage towards Dima, squeezing past people as he came. A good salesman to the end, he made eye-contact with almost everyone. Dima shook his head when the man looked at him. Not this time, he thought.
Sennaya Ploshad came and went. Nevsky Prospect was next.
The salesman, having concluded his business with those members of the carriage that required his product of the moment, moved to the door and stood next to Dima sorting out the money he had acquired and extracting a few more maps from the backpack he carried over one shoulder in preparation for moving to the next carriage when the train pulled in to the station.
The train began to slow. Dima, balanced carefully with his feet apart, still ended up swaying a little as the train came to a complete stop. The doors opened, and he and the salesman were the first to get out. Briefly disoriented by the crowd of people waiting to get on, Dima moved through them away from the edge of the platform, had a quick look around, located the way to the Green line and started off. There was the usual crowd of people. The junction of the Green and Blue lines is always busy, and at rush hour exceedingly so. There were thousands of people moving purposefully, many sitting on a few benches that lined the walls, even a couple of buskers.
Dima walked up a short flight of stairs and entered the connecting passageway. He was in a steady stream of people all moving in the same direction, all wanting to connect to the Green line. Suddenly, the man in front of him stopped walking and reached out to the wall for support. Dima, wondering if the man was drunk or unwell, had to pull up short. Someone careered into Dima causing him to almost lose his own balance and he too reached for the wall.
It was all over quickly. The man in front had clearly recovered for he continued walking briskly away. As Dima turned to apologise to whoever had crashed into him, he was surprised to see the man, wearing a dark beanie and a heavy dark green coat, disappearing into the crowd back the way they had come. This immediately raised Dima’s suspicions. He did his little check-list again: backpack, apartment keys, CD player…
The CD player was not there. Neither was his wallet, but that only had a few rubles in it – and he always kept his credit card in an inside pocket of his backpack – so that did not really matter. But his portable CD player, with the DVD-ROM of the scroll safely inside it, had somehow been unclipped and taken out from underneath his coat all without him even noticing. The whole incident must have been a set-up.
At once Dima set off after the man in the beanie who was still just in sight. They were both working against the flow of pedestrians so the other man had not got too far away. People frowned at Dima as he dodged in and out of their path, but he did not care. He kept his eyes locked on that beanie until it disappeared down the short flight of stairs Dima had ascended only a short time before. When Dima reached the top of the stairs himself he could not immediately locate the man. But then, off to one side heading for a platform, he saw him and jumped down the stairs in hot pursuit.
The man in the beanie seemed very cool about the whole business. He did not turn around even once to see if he was being followed; he just continued on his way as if he was a good, law-abiding citizen on his way home from work. It made Dima seethe as he attempted to follow as quickly as he could. The man disappeared through a large archway opening onto the platform, but Dima was fairly close behind so that by the time he arrived on the platform he again caught sight of the beanie ducking and weaving as the man moved up the platform between the people waiting for a train to arrive. Dima followed, and felt the wind start to pick up behind him. A train was arriving. Dima kept away from the edge and tried to narrow the distance between them, without taking his eyes off the man to make sure he did not try and escape through another archway.
However, when the train came to a stop many passengers got off, congesting the already-crowded platform still further. Dima only just caught a glimpse of the man in the beanie getting onto the train through the middle doors of a carriage. Knowing the train would not wait for him to get to the same door, Dima jumped through the doors at the nearest end of the same carriage. Seeing the man standing in the space near the middle doors, Dima made his way through the carriage towards him. But without really glancing in Dima’s direction, the man casually got off the train. Dima could see him through the windows, moving directly passed Dima.
The usual announcement came over the train’s intercom: “Watch out. The doors are closing.” As quickly as possible, Dima made a jump for the doors and was able to get his body wedged between them. The doors, unable to close completely, must have signalled the driver of the train in some way. After a few moments, the doors reopened and Dima was able to get off the train.
But the man was not there. When the doors had reopened, he had nonchalantly got back on the train, down the other end of the carriage. Dima stepped back onto the train himself. The man did not move. Neither did Dima, knowing what would happen if he tried to get to the man through the carriage.
Again, the warning announcement sounded and the doors began to close. Knowing he would very soon be trapped in the train with his pursuer, the man in the beanie jumped through the doors. The doors closed on his body, but he managed to push the doors apart slightly with his hands and then to squeeze through. Dima moved towards the doors nearest him but he was just not quick enough. They had closed with a bang when the man had got through. Instead, he was left stuck on the train watching the man disappear into the gloom as the train rapidly accelerated away.
“I’ve been inspired to preach on Revelation, this week,” Yevgeny started his sermon by saying. “For various reasons…” (he looked at Dima and Natasha, sitting near the front of the small room in which their church met) “…I have been reading the book of Revelation recently, and have found it to be enormously challenging. It contains a message that is just as relevant today as it was when it was first read in the churches of Asia Minor.
“Before we get to the passage I particularly want to look at today, I need to say something about the structure of the book as a whole. You can’t read through Revelation without noticing the three groups of seven: the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls. Each series of seven is accompanied by disasters on the earth, disasters that get progressively worse as each group of seven arrives. A quarter of the earth is affected by the seven seals; a third by the trumpets, and the bowls usher in a complete destruction.
“But you have to remember we are talking about the first century, here, and how they would have viewed this text. This book was first and foremost written to seven churches – another seven! – located in the Roman province of Asia Minor, in the country we now know today as Turkey. In those days, the disasters of the seven seals would have sounded terrible, but very much like everyday life with just a small amount of hyperbole thrown in for effect. The people hearing the scroll read for the first time would immediately call to mind the many disasters that had befallen the known world during the previous decades.
“However, when we come to the seven trumpets, which is the passage I wish to look at today, we have to ask ourselves, ‘What is the intensification for?’ In other words, why do the disasters now involve a third of the earth?”
Yevgeny took out his Bible and turned to Revelation chapter eight, and read verses six through to twelve.
“As you have just heard,” he continued, “all of these disasters involve a third: a third of the earth, trees and grass burned up; a third of the sea turned to blood, resulting in the destruction of a third of the sea creatures and a third of the ships; a third of the fresh water turned bitter; a third of the sun and the moon was darkened; a third of the stars ceased giving light.
“So far, the author gives us no clue as to the reason for the intensification. It is just simply stated. Now, I won’t read most of chapter nine. Suffice to say that the fifth trumpet summons demonic locusts with scorpion stingers that torture people, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the sixth trumpet summons an enormous army that kills a third of mankind. I pick it up from verse twenty:
“ ‘The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.’
“This, then, is the point of the trumpets. If the seven seals were a description of God in control over everyday life, then the trumpets signify God allowing evil to intensify in order to bring people to repentance. This is, in fact, why this particular group of seven is ushered in with the sound of a trumpet. In the Old Testament trumpets have various uses. For example, they are used in battle as a signal for the army of Israel to attack. Joshua used them to bring down the walls of Jericho according to God’s instructions.[30] Similarly, Gideon sounded trumpets and the Midianites, who far outnumbered the Israelites, fled in terror killing each other as they went.[31] But we don’t find the trumpets doing that here in Revelation. Instead, the other main use of trumpets in the Old Testament was as a warning. Let me read Ezekiel 33 verses one to five:
“ ‘The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them, ‘When I bring a sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him a watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself…’ ” ’
“Similarly, in Joel chapter two verse one, we read: ‘Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand…’ And what is even more fascinating, Joel’s trumpet is warning of an approaching army of locusts, just like Revelation’s fifth trumpet!
“So this is what the trumpets mean in Revelation: they sound the alarm. Mankind is supposed to hear the trumpets and realise that these terrible plagues are all part of God’s judgment on human sin. But they are not his final judgment, for there is still a chance for repentance. However, in chapter 11 verses fifteen onwards, when the seventh trumpet sounds the time for repentance is over and the time for the final judgment is come. As it says in verse 18 of that chapter, ‘The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead… for destroying those who destroy the earth.’
“Now, as I said at the beginning of this sermon, the message of the book of Revelation is as relevant now as it was back in the time when it was written. When you look around at mankind, do we still not see many people involved in idolatry? Of course, the idols have changed in appearance. They are no longer made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood. For some people, their idols simply are gold and silver. Peoples’ ever-growing greed for money is one thing that is destroying the earth and Revelation speaks about a destruction for just such people. Other people make idols of their possessions, like their car, their computer, their satellite navigation system. Whatever comes between you and God is an idol, and these verses make it clear that such things are sinful.
“And of course, there are still murders. Here in Russia we have been plagued by Mafia hits and terrorist acts on an almost weekly basis. And our streets are notorious for their pickpockets!” At this point, Yevgeny winked at Dima. “These are acts which must be repented of. And as for sexual immorality, one can only presume that this has certainly not decreased since the first century.
“Of especial interest in the list that John provides for us are two items which have been coming into their own in recent days: the worshipping of demons and the practising of magical arts. Apart from a perverse few, demons are not explicitly worshipped. However, we as Christians know that behind much of the New Age Movement lurks Satan, the prince of demons, disguised as an angel of light. And you only have to walk into any bookshop to see which magical arts are being practised in this supposedly scientific age.
“My point is this: mankind is still sinful and in need of repentance. The message of the seven trumpets is that God wants people to repent. He allows evil to intensify in order to bring people to their senses. He delays the final judgment to give all people the chance to realise their sinfulness and repent. As it says in Second Peter chapter three verse nine: ‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
“But this appeal is a personal one. Do not wait for the multitudes to repent before you come to God. You may miss out. The seventh trumpet may sound before you confess your sins to God and accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Instead, heed the warning and be saved. Let us pray.”
After the service, Dima made his way through to Yevgeny, sitting quietly in the front row. He sat down next to him.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Dima said softly.
“No,” replied Yevgeny. “I was just praying for those people present who may not have taken that first step of faith. I really believed God wanted me to say what I said today, that there would be someone who would listen and respond.”
“Maybe someone still will, so I’ll make it quick. I only wanted to say that I have finally got a copy of the scroll at home now.”
“Oh, that’s excellent. I was sorry to hear you had had your CD player stolen.”
“That’s OK,” replied Dima with a shrug. “It wasn’t exactly the latest piece of equipment. This just gives me the excuse to go out and buy an MP3 player!”
“Fair enough,” said Yevgeny with a laugh. “So what do you think of the scroll on DVD?”
“It’s pretty interesting. I’ve had a good look through the scroll, trying to read parts of it. I’d really like to learn Greek so that I can read it properly.”
“Well, you have to remember it’s New Testament Greek, not Greek as spoken in Greece today.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t know that.”
“Yes,” said Yevgeny. “It’s actually called Koinē Greek, and was the everyday speech of the common man, not the Classical Greek of the scholars and philosophers. It’s much rougher and unrefined.”
“Anyway, if you’d like to have a good look, I can lend you the DVD.”
“Sure! I’d love that. And Dr. Williams believes the scroll really is old?”
“Yes,” said Dima with a smile. “He thinks it could well be the original manuscript, the one from which all other copies were derived.”
“That would make it well worth a look. Wouldn’t it be funny if this copy explained who the 666 referred to!”
“Yes, that would be funny,” replied Dima with a laugh. “But I’ve looked up the spot and it doesn’t.”
“Ah, well, it was worth a try.”
At that moment another member of the congregation came up to Yevgeny. He looked as though he had been crying, so Dima thought it best to take his leave; Yevgeny had ministry to do.
They had a hard time getting away from the church of Smyrna. There had been quite a bond formed between this little group of Christians and Loukas and his companions through the reading of Ioanneis’ scroll. Perhaps they felt that as soon as Loukas left, persecution would start immediately. As far as Loukas was any judge, that was certainly possible. He thought of the part in the scroll where an angel swears by God the creator and says, ‘There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.’[32] This was the point in the scroll that correlated with the present moment in history; this was the boundary between what was past and what was to come. The sixth trumpet had sounded its warning; the majority of the peoples of the earth had not responded with repentance. And this is where Ioanneis then went on to describe the martyrdom of some in the church. Actually, it was not hard to foresee that as the resistance of those in the church to the worship of the emperor increased, opposition would increase all the more. What had really made an impression on Loukas was the effect that Ioanneis claimed martyrdom would have on the rest of the world. It was all in the contents of the little scroll: the persecution of the church would be the secret weapon by which God would win his victory over the church’s persecutors and to achieve his purposes of redemption.
As usual, Ioanneis had not spelled it out word for word. He had used an allusion to the prophet Ezekiel when he was given a scroll to eat and it was sweet to the taste.[33] Going beyond this, Ioanneis’ little scroll was also bitter to swallow, indicating that the contents of the scroll was not necessarily pleasant. And martyrdom seldom was.
So Loukas tried as best he could to encourage the believers to be strong in the face of this approaching persecution, knowing too that his friend Hermas was listening in. Eventually, they made their final farewells and set out through the city heading towards the city gates and the road that led to Pergamum. As they came to the Agora, Artemas decided they needed some additional supplies for the road ahead. After all, Pergamum lay due north of Smyrna, and would involve an additional day’s walking compared with their journey from Ephesus to Smyrna; it made sense that they carry with them some provisions that would ease their journey in the event of unforeseen difficulties.
“Hermas, can you see where they sell cheeses?” asked Artemas, trying to peer through gaps in the crowds of people milling about the Agora.
Hermas, being almost a head taller than Artemas, scanned the tables that were visible to him.
“Over there!” he cried, pointing to the eastern side of the Agora. Immediately, he set off in that direction, with the others following as best they could.
They chose some small, round and quite hard cheeses suitable for the road. Unlike softer cheeses, these did not have to be kept cool and could therefore withstand the warm temperatures of pedestrian travel during summer. From a nearby shop they purchased some bread rolls, also disconcertingly hard. Such provisions would give their teeth a good working-over, but would keep them from feeling hungry should they be forced to spend a night in the open. And the bread could always be softened with the addition of a little water.
Suitably laden, they exited the Agora through the central northern archway, and followed the flagstone roadway towards the northern gates of Smyrna. The street was itself quite busy, with many people hurrying towards the Agora to do their early-morning shopping, or – Loukas had to quickly step out of the way of a few men carrying large bags full of wares – even to set up their own stalls. Because of the crowds Loukas did not see the Roman patrol watching those passing in and out of the city gates until they stepped out of the shadows thrown by the gates themselves and stopped him and his companions in their tracks.
“Halt,” said the decurion, with a weary voice. He and his group of ten men had been on guard-duty since the middle of the night and they were well overdue for being relieved. Quite a few of his men clearly needed to be relieved in other ways, too; their expressions of quiet concentration masked a deep desperation only given away by a tightness about their eyes. It was getting on his nerves, not least because he too had been feeling the pressure building within. But no one was to leave until the next squad of soldiers arrived. All of this was at the forefront of his mind as he spotted the three young men travelling suspiciously unburdened, going against the majority flow of traffic. “Just a couple of routine questions.”
Loukas was suddenly very conscious of the scroll nestled in its leather pouch in his shoulder bag. “Certainly, sir,” he replied, in what he hoped was a suitably deferential tone.
The decurion, with a pained look that made Loukas feel rather uncomfortable, asked, “What has been the purpose of your visit to Smyrna?”
“I have been scouting out trade opportunities for my father,” Loukas replied.
“Who is your father and where is he based?”
Loukas had not been expecting his cover story to be challenged so he was at a loss whether to tell the truth at this point or not. In the end he felt it would be unwise to lie, especially when the lengthening silence would imply a lack of veracity anyway. “Theseus of Ephesus,” he said, eventually.
At that, one of the other soldiers looked up from his inward concentration. “Hey, I know of him. I had some excellent dates from him once.”
Loukas smiled, relieved that this backed up his story nicely. “I know for a fact, sir, that my father works hard to guarantee your satisfaction.”
“I well believe it,” said the soldier. “I’ve had some horrible ones in my day, but your father’s dates were as succulent as an Asian peach!”
“That’s enough, Gaius,” said the decurion with a frown. Turning to Loukas, he said, “Very well. You may proceed. You are heading to Pergamum, I believe?”
At first, Loukas was concerned that somehow the decurion must have had spies present at the reading of the scroll. But then he realised that since he was leaving from the northern gate, there were only a few cities he could be heading to if he was serious about looking for suitable trading opportunities, and Pergamum was the nearest one.
“That’s right,” he replied.
“Well, I wish you a quick and easy journey.”
“Thank-you, sir,” said Loukas, and with that he and his companions walked through the gates of Smyrna. Behind him, he heard the soldier speaking, “Yes, indeed, those dates were delicious. I’m salivating just thinking about them…”
A little way before the road turned around the edge of a hill, Loukas risked a quick look back at the gates. It appeared that the squad of soldiers was in the process of handing over to their relief. Loukas could see several of the soldiers hurrying off to some nearby barracks. Clearly, they had successfully avoided arousing any suspicions.
“That was close,” said Hermas with a worried look on his face.
“Possibly,” replied Loukas. “But I can’t see that we pose them any threat. After all, they don’t know about the scroll, and even if they did, they wouldn’t understand it.”
“That’s true,” said Hermas, only partially mollified.
“Well, let’s get on,” said Loukas cheerfully, turning back towards Pergamum. “We’ve a long road ahead.”
They continued around the bend and were soon well out of sight of the walls of Smyrna and of the decurion who had rushed up to one of the lookout posts in order to keep the three men in view for as long as possible.
Dima fingered the slip of paper in his hands nervously as the queue in front of him gradually lessened in size. He was standing in a post office, with a notice that had been placed in his letter-box informing him that a parcel had arrived from Nizhny Novgorod. So here he was in the post office waiting to receive it.
He guessed it would be from his grandmother, but he could not for the life of him think what she would be sending him. After all, what could she have that he could not buy here in St. Petersburg? Presumably then it must be something more personal; some of her delicious pickles or preserves in a jar, perhaps?
Finally, he was the first person in the queue, and then one of the ladies behind the counter called out, “Next!” He went over, handed her the notice along with his passport – to verify his identity and his right to the parcel – and she muttered something before disappearing into a back room. She returned with a small box wrapped in brown paper sealed at each end with what looked like black tar. She handed it through the small window with his passport sitting on top. He took it over to a bench that lined one of the walls of the post office. Once he got through the black tar the paper came off easily, revealing a cardboard box with the flaps taped up with masking tape. Using his apartment key, he sliced through the tape and opened the flaps.
Inside was a book, bound in leather with gold filigree on the cover. In fact, it looked very much like another volume in Dima’s great-great-grandfather’s diary. With some excitement, Dima took it from the box and opened to the first page. Sure enough, there was Nicolai’s elegant Russian script, the Cyrillic letters flowing beautifully yet almost indistinguishably from one to the next.
Oy, thought Dima to himself. Natasha’s going to like this!
He checked the box to see if there was anything more, and discovered a piece of paper. It was a short letter from his grandmother:
Dearest Dima & Natasha,
I came across this book of Nicolai’s behind a bookcase that we had taken down because it needed fixing. Knowing your interest in my grandfather, I thought you would like to read it. From what I can tell, it comes from a time after the diary that you still have. Perhaps you will finally learn how he came to injure his leg!
I look forward to seeing you again when you can spare the time. And if this will provide a suitable incentive, this year’s pickles are even better than last year’s!
With much love,
Babushka.
The post office was fairly close to Dima’s home, but he could barely stop himself from sitting down there and then and trying to read the diary. However, he knew that Natasha would find it difficult to forgive him if he did so. It was only fair, Dima considered, since she had found the original one. As he opened the post office door, and stepped out into the street, he had to admit that she had a much better chance of being able to decipher Nicolai’s handwriting, especially if he ever broke into French again!
Natasha was already at home, having finished work earlier than Dima, and had already prepared some food. She met him at the door and gave him a kiss.
“Is that the parcel?” she asked. “Is it from your grandmother?”
“Yes, indeed. And it’s more of Nicolai’s diary.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Natasha, all thought of the food cooking out in the kitchen forgotten. “Let me have a look!”
Dima put the box down on a low shelf, lifted the book out and handed it to Natasha. As he removed his shoes and placed some slippers on his feet, she began to read the first entry.
“ ‘Wednesday, 3rd March, 1886
“ ‘I am continually struck by the extremes of this at once beautiful and hideous culture. Today, for example, I was strolling through the amazing streets of the Great Bazaar. It is always an experience that is completely bewildering to the senses: the overpowering wafts emanating from the spice markets; materials shaded in all the colours of the rainbow combined into the most intricate designs; the deafening effect of thousands of recalcitrant beasts of burden all being urged by their impatient masters to keep moving; and then, somehow through the din comes the haunting sound of a local stringed instrument being expertly played by an elderly man, seated in the shade of an even more elderly Persian rug. All in all, I can usually pass the day just wandering around, occasionally buying a trinket here, having a drink of hot tea there.’ ”
“Oh, speaking of tea…” interrupted Dima.
“Oh, the pasta!” cried Natasha, dropping the diary hurriedly on the couch and running into the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later.
“It’s all fine,” she said. “Dinner is ready, then.”
“Why don’t you finish the entry first?” suggested Dima.
“Sure,” she replied, picking up the diary again, and opening the book at the first page again.
“ ‘But then, around three in the afternoon, I heard a commotion approaching. A crowd of men were following hard on the heels of a town crier. As he went by I heard him announcing the execution of some poor scoundrel who had somehow managed to get on the wrong side of the Emir – not a hard thing to do, unfortunately. I had heard from some of my compatriots here what usually happened to these unfortunates, so I followed at a distance, not wanting to intrude on these local affairs. The crowd centred in on the Minari Kalian, or the Tower of Death, so named for precisely what I then witnessed. The crowd continued to expand, as more and more men came from the surrounding streets and bazaars. And then the culprit appeared at the very top of the tower, with an escort of two large and formidable guards. There was almost instantly silence. From where I was standing I could barely hear the charges being read out. And then, almost casually, the man was picked up by the two guards and hurled out over the edge of the Tower. I consider myself fortunate not to have seen the landing; I consider myself most unfortunate that I, even at that distance, heard the landing.
“ ‘And then the crowd dispersed. I overheard one man say to his friend: “Not as good as last month. Last month the man screamed the whole way down. This one seemed resigned to his fate…”
“ ‘So there you have it: beauty and horror juxtaposed, and I for one am not sure that the beauty outweighs the horror.’ ”
There was a long silence.
“So, who wants some pasta?” asked Natasha with a forced smile.
“I’m not sure I have any appetite left,” replied Dima, grimacing. He gave a quick shake of his head. “No, I’m OK. Let’s eat.”
They went into the kitchen after Natasha placed the new diary next to the TV.
Over the next few days Dima and Natasha read more of the diary together. They learned that when the railway was being built to Bokhara, the Emir of the time had considered it evil – the locals referred to it as the Devil’s Wagon, apparently – so he had not allowed the Russians to build it too close to Bokhara. Consequently, this meant that the railway and the station were located some ten miles from the city. But once the locals had seen how the railway boosted trade in the region it had quickly caught on, so that New Bokhara, as the town that grew up around the station came to be called, soon became a bustling little trade centre, like a satellite orbiting the central bazaars of Bokhara itself.
They discovered that Nikolai had a fondness for silk, and often frequented the silk bazaar, sorting through the wares on display in the various stalls like a seasoned connoisseur. He had even ventured into the back courtyards of some of the old houses of Bokhara where the women would weave these silks in the shade of the mulberry trees whose leaves were just as important to the whole process.
Then, late one night, Natasha came across something quite intriguing.
“Dima,” she exclaimed, “Listen to this.” They were sitting up in bed, reading. Dima was wading through an unabridged version of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and while he was enjoying it, was grateful for a momentary distraction.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I think you will want to hear this. Listen. ‘I think I may have found someone able to translate the parchment I found in Ephesus. I have often wondered as to the significance of the parchment, given that it was found in with the scroll, and yet seemed to be separate from it. But I have been unable to find anyone who can read it. No one in the bazaars has been able to do so – or at least has not let on – so that I am still mystified as to its contents. However, today one of the sellers of trinkets of antiquity mentioned that a Muslim scholar of some repute had arrived recently to study some of the ancient texts found in the mosques of Bokhara. Tomorrow, I will take the parchment and seek him out.’ Well, what do you make of that?” she asked.
While Natasha had been reading from the diary, Dima had replaced his bookmark and returned Les Misérables to the bedside table. This was clearly something important. “What parchment?” he asked.
“I don’t know. He says it was separate from the scroll, yet found inside the box. What could it be?”
“I have no idea. But what if it, too, dates from the first century? I mean, it could well be from the author of Revelation himself! Remember, Dr. Williams thinks we found perhaps the original manuscript. What if this parchment contains more – perhaps a commentary on the book of Revelation, perhaps the interpretive keys, maybe even the name of the beast…”
“Now, now, don’t get carried away!” interrupted Natasha, laughing. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. Wouldn’t it make more sense to see if Nikolai was successful in getting it translated?”
“Of course. Does he?”
“How should I know? I stopped reading so that I could read that bit out to you. But I can keep going now, if you like.”
“Please do.”
She was quiet for a few minutes as she quickly scanned ahead.
“Hmmm, nothing yet,” she murmured after a while. “Just some more stuff about the silk bazaar.”
Dima was waiting impatiently. Eventually, though, Natasha stopped reading.
“That’s it,” she said sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve reached the end of the book. He never mentioned that parchment again, at least, not in this volume. Maybe Nadezhda will find another?”
Dima was rather disappointed.
“Well, I wouldn’t count on it. Maybe we should go and look for it ourselves. I mean, if we could find that parchment, who knows what value it may have to the Revelation scroll?”
“Well, then,” said Natasha with a sigh, “I guess we’re off to Nizhny Novgorod again…”