The Phoenician Code

by Karim El Koussa

  “During my many years of research, I’ve come across the term of ‘heretic’ being linked to the character of King Akhenaton.” Ms. Ahmed continued, “In fact, the accusations are not new. His adversaries, at the time, had been harassing him with it ever since he began his mission. However, the profundity of his thoughts and insights, which surfaced on the inscriptions in the tombs of Tell el-Amarna speak for themselves. Yes, they do.” She sipped at her glass of water to clear her throat and continued.

  “Heretic! Why? Because he was the pioneer of modern ideas? Ideas that shook Ancient Egypt, and broke its established polytheistic beliefs in Amon-Ra! Or maybe, because he had introduced the thought that Egypt should worship a single deity?” she stared at the audience with stern eyes.

  “And then, at any rate, humanity came to witness his great conception of Monotheism that had preceded the Jewish tradition of Moses, as per the teachings of the Old Testament. Some scholars would suggest that Akhenaton’s notion was not Monotheistic, but rather, Henotheistic. What is Henotheism? Let’s find out.” She opened her notebook, put her eyeglasses on, and read a definition from one of her references.

  “Henotheism is a term, initially penned by Mr. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, at the early dawn of the 19th century, to express some early phases of Monotheism. A few decades later, the German Philologist and Orientalist, Mr. Max Müller, applied the term commonly, to depict the veneration of a single god while tolerating the existence, or probable existence, of other gods.” She then took her eyeglasses off, and addressed the attentive crowd, “It’s not our concern, at present, to delve into more details on Müller’s criticism of Western theological and religious credo that focused on Monotheism and held it to be, both, basically precise and naturally better than any other distinct concept of God, which we may find in Ancient Eastern Religions.” She paused for a deep, long breath, as if ready to surprise the crowd, or maybe the scholars who accepted Akhenaton’s notion of Henotheism and not Monotheism for a reason she knew all too well.

  “If Akhenaton’s vision that Egypt should worship a single deity, the sun god Aton, is to be considered Henotheism; how could we then classify the concept of Moses on Yahweh, as a jealous god among many?” She looked around the hall. “I leave you with that thought, to brood over it for a while. Thank you for your time,” she ended with a grin.

  After the fervent discussion—which took up the entire fifteen minutes—on the early history of Egypt during the reign of King Akhenaton had ended, a great number of people agreed with her, and few discarded her thesis. A break of five minutes ensued.

  “Shalom,” Mr. Aaron Ben Levi began his speech, the moment he stood behind the stand. Dressed in a black suit over a grey shirt, he had short, messy onyx-colored hair covering most of his forehead. With small raven eyes marking his oblique-shaped head, he looked at the audience.

  His detailed narration on David, his Kinship and Kingdom was a tale, incredibly familiar to the people attending the seminar that day. Academics, Scholars, and students had often heard the same lingo, over and over again, from many Jewish thinkers throughout the years. As most people, they had also read the tradition in the Bible.

  It seemed that very few people were interested in the subject tackled by Mr. Ben Levi. The majority of the attendees felt a kind of boredom creeping into their minds, which had been lucid in concentration about half an hour ago, when Ms. Ahmed was speaking.

  Mr. Ben Levi proposed nothing novel to the scientific minds facing him. Unlike his compatriot, Mr. Jacob Inklestein, Professor of Archaeology at the Tel-Aviv University, who offered a meticulous explanation of his controversial Archaeological findings for the last twenty or more years; Mr. Ben Levi’s dry idiom was arranged, in such a manner, that it disconnected, perhaps entirely, from the thematic that this seminar had been originally organized for. Although he related his telling to ancient history—Jewish in particular—he seemed to have totally ignored the point of the seminar: Biblical Archaeology.

  To cut a long story short, Mr. Ben Levi presented zilch newsworthy material related to the Historical Methodology of the History of the Biblical Israel. He probably knew, way before he participated in this intellectual affair, that he would not be here to oppose or doubt his people’s traditions, by scientific methods, in front of a mixed audience. On the contrary, he would rather do his best to keep things the way they were by religious cognizance.

  “Thank you, so much, for your valuable input, Mr. Ben Levi. You have truly enlightened us,” Ms. Von Gunten smiled at the scholar, who had reached his chair with a feeling of victory. She then directed her attention to Paul, getting himself prepared for his speech. With an amiable welcoming gesture, she invited him to take his place at the stand.

  “Thank you,” he uttered, a bit timid. Standing behind the podium, facing the stern audience from all over the world, composed of Academics, Scholars, and students was something that felt rather heavy on Paul. Yet, he had to face the crowd in front of him. There is no room for fear now, Paul. You cannot go back, he thought to himself. In fact, Paul would not allow the menacing letter he had received the night before to impede him from speaking-out his mind. He took a deep breath, and scanned the audience with the eyes of an Eagle.

  “Shalam Likum,” Paul saluted the audience, using a language strange to them. “This is how my ancestors, the Phoenicians, saluted each other and people from other nations,” he explained. “Some of you would say, and it’s a debate that has been going on for some time now, that a Lebanese is an Arab and not a Phoenician. With all due respect to the scientific minds of modern day, this could only be true on linguistic grounds. It is the same with today’s ethnographers who would add the Canaanites or Phoenicians to the Semitic groups of the old days, like the Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hebrews…” he looked across the hall, and then added, “In fact, the Phoenicians belonged to the Hamitic/Afro-Asiatic group of peoples like the Egyptians, for instance.” He then looked at Ms. Aziza Ahmed who seemed to have nodded in approval.

  Dressed in a blue suit over a white shirt, adorned with a red tie; he had a stylish pair of glasses covering his focused brown eyes. “Sorry for this out-of-context prologue,” he began, “but I truly felt the need to impart this to you, as I thought it would be appropriate to clear things up, once and for all. At any rate, my topic today is the Temple of Solomon.” He halted for a sip of water to clear his throat. “According to the Bible, or to be more specific, the Old Testament, the Temple of Solomon had been built due to a brotherly request made by King Solomon to Hiram—King of Tyre. Since the Hebrew people were only nomads, and used to worshipping their national god, YHWH, inside a movable tent, the idea of a Temple to house their god greatly fascinated them. The Old Testament narrated how the Tyrian King appointed one of the best Architects in his court, Hiram Abiff, to do the job that was to be accomplished many years later.”

  “Now, on the historical level this big event was not found in the available Phoenician Historical texts. Of course, I would be more than happy to prove that this is true, if only for national pride,” he chuckled. “Yet, truth is always much more important than anything else.” He paused and surveyed the people listening to him. To his surprise and great satisfaction he found the lively eyes of the three professors: Mr. Thomas Lampson, Ms. Kathie Whitlam, and Mr. Jacob Inklestein straight on him. He grinned to them, as he inhaled more energy for his speech.

  “Some later documents revealed that Hiram Abiff, the Architect, had requested the assistance of skillful Phoenician artisans and scientists from the city of Gebel, known also as Byblos to most of you present here, to help him in the construction of the Temple of Solomon. This part is true, but not at all related to a construction of some sort in the city of Jerusalem, at the time of King Solomon.”

  A staggering quietness befell the Domus Clericorum. Not a sound or a word! Not even a whisper! Hungry eyes looked at Paul with great expectation, as if wanting and waiting for a great mystery to be revealed that night. Yet, some ang
ry eyes looked at him differently.

  “The Truth! One of the great ancient Phoenician historians, by the name of Sanchoniaton, related the existence of a great Temple in the city of Sur, known also as Tyre. A Temple known as the Temple of Baal-Melkart, built by the Architect Hiram Abiff, at the time of King Hiram of Tyre—a great King, who ruled the city of Tyre, sometime between the years 971 to 939 BC. Logically, the Temple must have been built before he died.” He took a sip of water and resumed his lecture, all too slowly.

  “At the time, Phoenicians—and surely their brothers—the Egyptians, were both great nations of Sacred Builders, and great builders in Phoenicia prospered in Gebel, a city as old as time itself, so to speak. Surely, Hiram Abiff would use the skills of the Geblites, in the building of a Temple for his King. Moreover, and to be more punctilious, Herodotus—one of the great Greek Historians, who lived between 485 and 425 or 414 BC—confirmed, without a doubt, having seen the whole Temple of Baal-Melkart at Sur.”

  “Herodotus described the Temple of Ba’al…” Paul was reading from the notepapers in his hand, “…As ‘richly furnished with many votive offerings, and has two massive pillars that shine at night, one made of pure gold and the other of an emerald stone’.” Paul stopped reading, and looked at the audience. “I’m not certain about the emerald stone,” he said. “Our Phoenician records narrate that the Temple was one-of-a-kind in all of ancient Loubnan. It stood magnificently impressive. At each side of its entrance, two winsome pillars stood as guards to the main door—made of Cedar wood. One of them was made of Hajjar al Urjouwan, the Purple Stone or Ruby, not an emerald stone, and the other shone as Crystal or Pure Gold.”

  “At any rate, this is a beautiful representation of the Temple in Sur that somehow mirrors, to a certain extent, the story of Solomon’s Temple in the Old Testament. One may definitely ask: could the Temple of Solomon be just a plain exact copy of the Temple of Baal-Melkart?” He looked at the audience sitting still on their chairs, probably not knowing whether Paul was asking them that question, or pronouncing it for himself.

  He seemed to know the answer very well, for he gave them a wide grin, and continued confidently, “Unlike the Temple of Solomon, which has no historical proof, and was only mentioned in the Old Testament, the Temple of Sur was cited by Sanchoniaton, Herodotus, and even Alexander the Great. The latter, who deemed himself to be the son of the incarnated God Heracles (Hercules), known as Melkart, had a dream to visit it, and not only pay Heracles homage, but convene a ritual there; something the Priests of Baal utterly refused, for only the High Priest could perform such an honorable, holy feat,” he paused and took a deep, long breath. “Obviously, I can openly deduce, in conclusive verification, that the Temple of Solomon is naught but an imaginary copy of the Temple of Baal-Melkart, a myth. Yet...” he paused for a daring thought, “Its reality, but a dream kept secret from King Solomon…”

  On stating his last sentence, Paul closed the notebook in his hands with a smile, ending with that his twenty-minute lecture. A swift instant of silence ensued for the majority of the people attending the seminar to assess the historical information he had just offered. Judged very reasonable, a few moments later they stood up, and greeted him with loud applause.

  “Thank you all,” he said in a happy tone. “Any questions?”

  A few seconds of silence passed until a man stood and called out, “Mr. Khoury, excuse me, I’m John Miller, a Professor at the University of Oxford lecturing at the faculty of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. I must admit that I am a bit curious to know more about your theory. Can you provide proof that the Temple of Solomon did not exist? Or let me phrase it this way, what are the associated studies on which you based your Academic thesis?” Mr. Miller, one of the attendants on the left side of the hall, asked in a serious tone.

  “Thank you for your question, Sir,” Paul answered the man, with a grin. “Well, I’m not an Archaeologist, and have never been in Israel. In fact, Lebanese are not allowed to travel there, due to the war that has been going on for years now. War is ugly, and I truly hope that peace reigns in the Middle East. As you may well have heard Ms. Von Gunten’s introduction at the beginning of the seminar, I have done my studies in Ancient History & Religion at the Lebanese University, and therefore, like every committed academic, I base all my work on proofs, not myths.” He sipped at his glass of water.

  “You were probably here yesterday, and have heard what the three great Professors have said about the lack of evidence, concerning the true history of Ancient Israel, as mentioned in the Old Testament. Unlike the vague tale of the Patriarchs, the miraculous Exodus from Egypt, and other narrations of the kind in many books of the Old Testament, some scholars have agreed that the Kingdom of Israel could be the first Biblical period that probably has some historical foundation, or perhaps, that was what they thought and wanted the world to believe.” He focused his attention on one part of the crowd. “If the Kingdom of Israel fails to exist in history then the whole Judeo-Christian culture would crumble! At any rate, when we study Ancient Israel, we first come across the Kingdom of Saul, described as the union of the Israelite tribes, followed by the idea of a nation-state under King David and his son—Solomon, which most biblical scholars call the Golden Age of the Kingdom of Israel. Right?” He was looking at the audience.

  “However, reality in the fundamental nature of History is totally different. For example, the Old Testament, which is not a book of history in the complete sense of the word, but a compilation of fables and fairytales, has related nothing we could learn of the procedures taken in government during King David’s reign! Although the Old Testament describes the grandeur of Solomon’s Royal Palace, the Temple in Jerusalem, and other building activities he engaged in, they all fail to produce a single shred of proof for their own existence. If such a Great Kingdom of United Monarchy had really existed in the course of history, with all its wealth and power, then why has it not been mentioned by the Egyptians, who used to record almost everything, by the Mesopotamians, or even by the Phoenicians, at least in the few documents that have survived time?”

  “With no Historical or Archaeological verification offered, regarding the Kingdom and the Temple, the majority of respectful Biblical historians, such as Thomas L. Thompson, Philip Davies, Niels Peter Lemche, Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman, Keith Whitlam, etc… have another exciting explanation. They tend to believe that, for some ideological and political reason, the whole Biblical narration of the history of Ancient Israel could be nothing more than the intricate operation of a skillful clandestine group of priests, living in Jerusalem at some post-exilic time.”

  “Within the same line of logic, some other Scholars and Professors have a propensity to believe that the statement about the historic reality of such an Israel could be naught but a clear mirror, to reflect the modern state as a sanctuary for European Jews—a nation of power.” He came to a halt, and gazed at the attentive audience in front of him. “Consequently, the reality of the Temple of Solomon as a focal symbol of power is, in fact, a very important substance for Judeo-Christian scholars, for it efficiently gives an ideological excuse and a religious-political right to conquer and dominate foreign lands. Isn’t that what happened in modern times? War is ugly, and it gets even uglier when it’s founded on myths…” he took a deep breath. “Think about it and thank you for your time,” he said with finality.

  The discussion that followed his speech was even more convincing than the speech itself. The greater part of the audience, seeking reality, might have felt that the great mystery behind the Temple of Solomon—that they had long been waiting to unlock—had been totally exposed tonight. Yet, very few, annoyed people considered his lecture inconsistent with their beliefs, and tried to create havoc in response to the political notion he had made, but the administration of the Château controlled the situation at once.

  Paul hadn’t had in mind to actually imply a connection between Israel’s history, religion, and politics, when he first bega
n preparing his paper at the request of the Cultural Affairs Department of the Château. Yet, the issue was so complicated that it had dragged him to mention the whole picture, the way he saw it after so many years of extensive research in the History of the Levant.

  The night was still young when Paul headed to the Hotel. Sitting leisurely on the same comfortable brown couch with its coffee table at the large terrace, holding his cup of tea in his hands, he was looking pensively at the Lake. How beautiful, he stated.

  A nice piece of undulating music anchored in his ears.

  He smiled.

  .7.

  A dwelling in the woods

  Saturday, 6:06 PM

  In the midst of long Cypress trees—superbly decorating the plain, beneath one of the most imperial peaks of the Alps—stood a huge double-structured mansion, built in Swiss Chalet style: a black and white stronghold, lit within the faint yellow lights that surrounded it. Roofed with dark-brown pieces of brick, it had three towers, topped with tiny dark-grey stones. The silhouette of a man, standing behind the window’s bulletproof glass, moved the curtain left then right, peeking outside.

  Not a soul could be seen moving within the short scope of his vision, and surely nowhere around that prestigious dwelling. The perimeter was completely secured, not only by the most fierce guardians of all times: dogs—dozens of black Dobermans lurking in wait all around—but also by the most sophisticated security systems ever invented to date.

  “We cannot carry on like this,” his croaky voice echoed towards the back, reaching the attentive ears of the two other men who were sitting on comfortable couches around a rectangular black and white table in the middle. “The great legacy the brothers had shaped, almost nine-hundred years ago, is fading gradually. I sense the danger of losing ground, losing power,” he alerted them, his thumb rolling the golden-black ring on his index finger, his face still directed to the outside.