02 The Secret on Ararat (13 page)

There was a screech as Methuselah scooted away from the crash site and made for one of the exits.

With his last breath Murphy shouted after him, “These things are always faked, Methuselah! Didn’t you know?”

A door slammed and Murphy sank to the canvas.
This time he wasn’t pretending. Note to self, he thought: The next time one of Methuselah’s packages landed on his desk, it’d be Returned to Sender, Address Unknown. He didn’t know how many more of the old man’s surprises his body could take, but there had to be a limit. Especially since this time he’d been suckered into performing purely for Methuselah’s entertainment.

On the way back to his car, Murphy was amazed to find that the drunken-man technique really had spared him any major injury. He knew he’d be hurting for a day or two, but at least there were no actual dislocations, just a few muscle pulls and bruises.

On the drive home, Murphy had plenty of time to think about the strange wrestling bout. It did seem as if Methuselah had finally stopped playing by even his own twisted rules. After all, Murphy had won the bout fair and square—something Methuselah obviously hadn’t been expecting since he didn’t hang around to give Murphy his prize. Weird. Very weird.

Unless Murphy had already been given it.

He started to go over every detail again in his mind. The Promised Land. So they were talking Old Testament. Then what? Of course—the sketch. An angel with outspread wings. Okay, an Old Testament angel. That didn’t narrow it down much.

So what else did he know?

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in frustration. Maybe the drawing meant something else. He should have kept it, looked at it more closely. He’d gone ten rounds with a homicidal giant, and all the time—

That was it! Of course! The wrestling match. Who’d wrestled with an angel in the Old Testament?

Jacob.

And what did Jacob have to do with Noah’s Ark? Murphy’s mind was in high gear now. What else could it be but the Monastery of St. Jacob, the one at the foot of Mount Ararat?

Murphy pulled over at a gas station and called Isis on his cell phone.

She seemed pleased to hear his voice. “I’ve been training hard, Murphy. You better watch out when we get to Ararat. I’ll race you to the top—loser buys dinner.”

Murphy grinned. “I seem to be buying everyone dinner now.”

“How come?”

“Never mind. Listen, could you go over to the National Archives and the Library of Congress and see what you can find out about St. Jacob of Nisibis and the Monastery of St. Jacob in Turkey?”

“No problem. Why?”

“I’m not sure,” Murphy replied. “But it could be important.”

When he got back to his office Shari had already left. Murphy began to pore over his books and manuscripts relating to Noah’s Ark, searching for any references to St. Jacob. He already knew that the monastery had been destroyed by the earthquake of 1840. It had been buried by a landslide from the Ahora Gorge. All of the ancient books and manuscripts, as well as the artifacts, had been destroyed.

It was late in the afternoon when his phone rang.

“Michael! I did a search on St. Jacob and the monastery. There wasn’t much, I’m afraid.”

Murphy’s heart sank. Had he followed the wrong clues?

“But I did find one rather interesting book on the travels of Sir Reginald Calworth, written in 1836. In one chapter he mentions visiting the Monastery of St. Jacob and talking with a Bishop Kartabar. It seems that the bishop allowed him to look at the ancient manuscripts in their library. He also was taken to a special room where what he calls
the treasures from Noah’s Ark
were kept. The book mentions that there were over fifty items that the priests claimed came off the ark.”

Murphy whistled, trying to imagine what the items could possibly have been.

“But that’s not the best part,” Isis went on. “Calworth makes a passing comment that caught my eye. He says, and let me quote,
After we left the room of treasures, the Bishop told me he had sent some of the manuscripts and artifacts to the town of Erzurum in the care of priests.”

“Is that it? He doesn’t say where in Erzurum?”

“No. From there Sir Reginald goes back to describing the local flora and fauna, the culture of the local people, the weather, et cetera.”

“Erzurum,” Murphy repeated. “Maybe the secrets aren’t on the mountain at all.”

TWENTY-TWO

“OKAY, YOU GUYS. Hand them over. And no funny business.”

There was a ripple of laughter as the students filed past Murphy and handed in their assignments before going back to their seats in the lecture hall. He was impressed. Everybody seemed to have written something. Perhaps the subject of Noah’s Ark and the Flood really had stirred their imaginations.

“Did any of you discover anything of interest that you would like to share with the group?”

A hand went up to the right of Murphy.

“Yes, Jerome!”

“Professor Murphy, I learned that Noah was the best financier in the Bible. He floated his entire stock while the whole world was in liquidation!”

Murphy smiled. Joking around was fine with him, as long as they could focus on the serious stuff as well. He
was about to gently steer the conversation in that direction when Clayton, the class clown, piped up. If people were telling jokes, he wasn’t going to get left on the sidelines.

“Professor Murphy, I found out that they didn’t play cards on Noah’s Ark. That was because Mrs. Noah sat on the deck!”

The whole class groaned.

“Well,” Murphy said. “If you spent as much time and effort on your assignment as you did on your jokes … we’re in trouble!” He waited for the laughter to die down. “Does anyone have anything on more of a serious nature? Yes, Jill!”

“Professor Murphy, I was amazed to discover that around the world scientists have found fossils of sea creatures high in the mountains. This gives credibility to the concept of a universal flood that covered all the mountains of the earth.”

He nodded. “Sam, you have a comment?”

“Yes. In my research I found out, like Jill, that sea fossils were found in the mountains near Ararat at the ten-thousand-foot level. That’s over three hundred miles inland from the Persian Gulf.”

Another hand went up.

“I read that fossils of sand dollars and clams have been found behind the Dogubayazit Hotel at the five-thousand-foot level. Dogubayazit is the town at the foot of Mount Ararat. The article went on to say that the ministers of the interior and defense of Turkey say that fossils like sea horses, and other fossils of ocean origin have been found as high as fourteen thousand feet on Mount Ararat.”

“Professor Murphy! I found some information that Nicholas Van Arkle, a Dutch glaciologist, took pictures of fish and seashells near the ark rock on the western rim of the Ahora Gorge on Mount Ararat.”

Hands were beginning to be raised all over the lecture hall. Murphy nodded to himself in quiet satisfaction. Their imaginations had been stirred, all right.

Don West raised his hand.

“Professor Murphy. I tried to follow the various flood stories that are mentioned around the world. I was amazed to find that there are over five hundred different stories about a worldwide flood. I think that
The Epic of Gilgamesh
is the most famous.”

“You’re right, Don, it is. It’s amazingly similar to the biblical account of the Flood. In fact, I have prepared a paper for you that gives a comparison.”

Shari passed out the sheet to the students.

Genesis	Gilgamesh
Extent of flood	Global	Global
Cause	Man’s wickedness	Man’s sins
Intended for whom?	All mankind	One city & all mankind
Sender	Yahweh [God]	Assembly of “gods”
Name of hero	Noah	Utnapishtim
Hero’s character	Righteous	Righteous
Means of announcement	Direct from God	In a dream
Ordered to build boat?	Yes	Yes
Did hero complain?	Yes	Yes
Height of boat	Several stories	Several stories
Compartments inside	Many	Many
Doors	One	One
Windows	At least one	At least one
Outside coating	Pitch	Pitch
Shape of boat	Rectangular	Square
Human passengers	Family members	Family & few friends
Other passengers	All species of animals	All species of animals
Means of flood	Ground water raintd>	Heavy rain
Duration of flood	40 days & nights	Short 6 days & nights
Test to find land	Release of birds	Release of birds
Types of birds	Raven & 3 doves	Dove, swallow, raven
Ark landing spot	Mount Ararat	Mount Nisir
Sacrificed after flood	Yes, by Noah	Yes, by Utnapishtim
Blessed after flood	Yes	Yes

As they read, Murphy continued. “The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered by a British bank clerk named George Smith in 1872. In his spare time he translated four-thousand-year-old cuneiform tablets that were dug up in the old Assyrian capital of Nineveh near the Persian Gulf. During his ten years of labor he discovered the Gilgamesh story about a character named Utnapishtim. As you can see, it was very similar to the biblical story.

“Now, in addition to the Gilgamesh story, there are many, many countries throughout the world where the story of a global flood has been passed down from one generation to another. While the specific details of these traditions may differ, there is no escaping that each of
these cultures holds to a belief in a global flood occurring at some point in the past. I have made a partial list of the countries and peoples and ancient writers where these flood traditions exist. Shari, would you please pass this out?”

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Babylon

Bapedi

Central Africa

Chaldea

Egypt

Hottentots

Jumala Tribe

Lower Congo

Masai Tribe

Otshi Tribe

Persia

Syria

PACIFIC ISLANDS

Alamblack Tribe

Alfoors of Ceram

Ami

Andaman Islands

Australia

Bunva

Dutch New Guinea

East Indian Island

Engano

Falwol Tribe

Fiji

Flores Island

Formosa

Hawaii

Kabidi Tribe

Kurnai Tribe

Leeward Islands

Maoris

Melanesia

Micronesia

Nais

New Britain

Otheite Island

Ot-Danoms

Polynesia

Queensland

Rotti Tribe

Samoa

Sea Dyaks

Sumatra

Tahiti

Toradjas

Valman Tribe

FAR EAST

Bahnara

Bengal Kohl

Benua-Jakun

Bhagavata

China

Cigpaws

India

Karens

Mahabharata

Matsya

Sudan

Tartary Mongols

EUROPE & ASIA

Apamea

Apollodorus

Athenian

Celts

Cos

Crete

Diodorus

Druids

Finland

Hellenucus

Iceland

Lapland

Lithuania

Lucian

Megaros

Norway

Ogyges

Ovid

Perirrhoos

Pindar

Plato

Plutarch

Rhodes

Romania

Russia

Samothrace

Siberia

Sithnide

Thessalonica

Transylvania

Wales

NORTH AMERICA

Acagchemens

Aleutian Indians

Algonquins

Appalachian Indians

Araphos

Arctic Eskimos

Athapascans

Blackfoot Indians

Cherokees

Chippewas

Cree

Dogribs

Eleuts

Flatheads

Greenland

Iroquois

Mandans

Nez Perces

Pimas

Thlinkuts

Yakimas

CENTRAL AMERICA

Aztecs

Antilles

Canaries

Cuba

Mayas

Mexico

Muratos

Nicaragua

Panama Indians

Toltecs

SOUTH AMERICA

Abederys

Achawols

Arawaks

Brazil

Calngans

Carayas

Incas

Macusls

Maypures

Orinoco Indians

Pamarys

Tamanacs

“As you can see, there are many groups around the world that have a flood tradition in their culture.”

As Murphy was speaking, several people entered the lecture hall. He recognized two of his students, who were late and were entering sheepishly. The third person he thought he recognized. He was a tall man with very strong features. He was wearing a well-cut blue pinstripe suit. Murphy followed the athletic figure as he moved to the back of the auditorium. He leaned against the wall and faced the front. When he took off his sunglasses, Murphy could see his gray eyes even at a distance.

I know him. What’s his name?

Murphy’s attention was brought back to the front row. Paul Wallach had his hand raised. Shari looked a little apprehensive.

“Yes, Paul.”

“Couldn’t these different people have gotten similar stories from their relatives who may have traveled to another country? Or perhaps, couldn’t some missionary have told them about the Flood and that is the reason they have flood stories?”

Murphy nodded. “I suppose that could be possible,
but that would be a pretty big stretch, Paul. It is difficult to imagine that people from, say, the jungles of Papua New Guinea, had relatives who traveled very far. There are over 860 languages in that country alone. Missionaries have translated the Bible into only about 130 of those languages, and yet the newly discovered tribes still have a flood story.

“Let me give you an example. In the western district of Papua New Guinea, there is a tribe called the Samo-Kubo. When the missionaries arrived at this remote tribe, they found a flood tradition. The tribesmen believed that if you make lizards mad, they will bring another flood and destroy the world again. If previous missionaries had been there, they certainly would not have taught the tribesmen that lizards would destroy the world with a flood.”

Murphy had Shari turn on the projector.

“Let me show you one slide of how the story of the Flood could have been passed on. You will see the arrows running away from the Mideast to all parts of the world. It is believed that after Noah landed on Ararat and the people began to multiply, they built the Tower of Babel. God then confused their languages and the people dispersed throughout the world. They could have taken the flood story with them. Over time, as the story was passed down, it was changed in each location. This seems a more logical conclusion as to why there are over five hundred flood traditions around the world. I believe that they came from one source. They had a common origin.”

Murphy could see that Paul was trying to figure out the weak point in this argument. He could also see that
Shari was beginning to have a difficult time with Paul. She looked uncomfortable as he frowned in concentration beside her.

“If what you are saying about the Flood is true,” Paul said at last, “it contradicts the theory of evolution. They can’t both be true.”

“I agree,” Murphy said.

“So on the one hand we have a bunch of myths and stories,” Paul said. “And on the other a proven scientific theory relying on fossil evidence.” He smirked unpleasantly. “I think I know which one I go for.”

Shari looked as if she wanted the ground to swallow her up, but Murphy smiled at Paul, trying to show Shari he wasn’t fazed or annoyed by Paul’s argument.

“You have a point, Paul. Evidence is evidence. Do you remember last semester when I demonstrated that there had been more than twenty-five thousand archaeological digs that had unearthed evidence confirming the authenticity of the Bible? And that there had never been one single artifact unearthed contradicting any biblical reference? I might also point out that every one of your proofs for evolution, the so-called missing links, have all turned out to be either fraudulent, misidentified, or simply a case of wishful thinking. Even evolutionist Dr. Colin Patterson, former head of the British Museum of Natural History, has admitted there is not one single transitional fossil in existence anywhere that could be used to prove the theory of evolution. So tell me, Paul, what would you think if someone discovered the remains of the Ark? You’d have to give up your theory of evolution then, wouldn’t you?”

Paul shrugged. “Sure. I’d eat my hat too.”

Murphy wagged a finger at him. “Don’t make any promises you can’t keep, Paul. I’ll let you off eating your hat, as long as you promise to look at the Bible with an open mind and think about what it teaches.” He turned to the rest of the class. “Let’s imagine someone does find the remains of the ark. It would be the most important archaeological discovery ever made. But even more awesome, it would be the proof that God
did
judge the wickedness of the world with the Flood. And if the Bible was accurate in predicting the flood judgment, it must also be accurate in predicting the next judgment—the judgment of the Son of Man that Jesus talks about!”