The Phoenician Code

by Karim El Koussa

  At that, Paul remembered Padre Joseph and his explanations during his many visits. In a strange silence the Padre would lay his forehead on his right hand, close his eyes, and fall into a deep meditation. When he read from the New Testament, he would speak out with great emotion, especially when reciting from the book of John, whom he considered amazing. Then he would snatch off his eyeglasses, toss them on the desk, and begin…

  “Of course,” Padre Joseph would say, “Jesus never claimed he was the King of the Jews, simply because he was not, nor did he want to be. Jesus would not claim something out of a lie, and he simply proclaimed that his Kingdom was not from this world, but if it were, he would ask his servants to defend him and fight so that he would not be delivered to the Jews. This is a two-fold answer: one of its meanings is spiritual and the other, material. His material answer would suggest that he meant to tell Pilate that he was a Galilean and not a Jew. On the other hand, his spiritual answer would mean that his Kingdom is the Kingdom of God, of Love, to which he is the son, who never chooses evil ways—like war—to save himself from his enemies, except that Jesus has no enemies! God has no enemies.”

  Dr. Najem dragged Paul out of his recollections, his voice rising clear and forceful, as he resumed his explanation on one particular matter gone misunderstood for centuries, “On the Cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eloi’, which translates into: My God, my God. Then Jesus added, ‘Lamash Baktani’, which means in Aramaic, ‘How much have you praised me?’ wrongly translated into: ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ for ‘Lama Shabaktani’.” Dr. Najem paused for a decisive moment, “Of course the Father would not have forsaken his son, who bowed his head and surrendered his last breath saying, ‘It has been accomplished.’ Jesus Christ called his God ‘El’, his Father, in whose warm hands he rested everlastingly. He did not call him YHWH. Did he?”

  The statement hung over the Historian, heavy with a new realization. Dr. Najem’s inquisitive eyes probed for Paul’s discernment to his revelation. Then, seemingly satisfied, he nodded, and continued, “Anyway, after the death of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea took his body down from the cross to bury him in…”

  “Joseph of Arimathea!?” Paul exclaimed, interrupting him, “You mean… the same Joseph who was strongly connected to the story of the Grail?”

  “Yes, that’s him.”

  “Who was he?” Paul rushed to ask.

  “That’s a good question,” answered Dr. Najem, “There is not much canonic information about him, unfortunately. John 19:38, Matthew 27:57, Mark 15:42 and Luke 23:50 cited him in an almost identical way. The New Testament reveals that Joseph was the disciple of Jesus. It also says that he was a rich man who appealed to Pilate in secret, for fear of the Jews, to deliver to him the body of Jesus. Pilate conceded, and Joseph took the body down from the cross, wrapped it in a clean white-linen cloth, and placed it inside a tomb—within a garden—which he had carved in a rock. Joseph made sure that Jesus would rest in an unscathed, new tomb. He then rolled a big stone to the door of the sepulcher to seal it, before he departed. The New Testament declared him a good and just man and an honorable counselor, awaiting the Kingdom of God.”

  “I see,” Nabil uttered in a voice filled with emotion, then asked, “Where is Arimathea?”

  “Only the book of Luke mentions that Arimathea was a city of the Jews. In fact, the right name of this city, as known in the time of Jesus, was Rameh. Fortunately though, it is not hard to find, and so if we look at these maps at the end of the book, we find two places with the name of Rameh; one in Samaria and the other… well, guess where?” Dr. Bechara asked with an eloquent smile.

  “In Galilee!” Both Nabil and Paul replied in unison then looked at each other in doubt.

  “Yes! And to be more accurate, Rameh still exists, even today, in Lebanon, very close to Kana—the place from which Mary came, and where Jesus performed his first miracle,” he confirmed.

  “What?” Paul burst out in shock.

  “Yes, canonic history reveals that there were about six places by the name of Rameh or Ramah, and one of them could be identified with the modern Palestinian city of Ramallah. However, the Rameh from which Joseph originated is located twenty-one kilometers South of Tyre and only nine kilometers from Kana,” Dr. Bechara informed, and moved away from the window to snuff out his cigar in the ashtray on the table.

  Without comment Paul sighed in relief, as he studied the maps.

  “Not only that. Our archives indicate that Joseph was the Great uncle of Jesus!” Professor Michel added as an afterthought that felt more like a bombshell.

  “The great uncle of Jesus?” Nabil blurted out with that same emotional temperament that characterized him.

  Paul would’ve smiled widely in amusement, were it not for his own astonishment. He uttered in the direction of the Professor, “You mean… he was Mary’s Uncle?”

  “Yes. Mary was from Kana, and her uncle was from Rameh. Only nine kilometers separated the two towns. He was indeed a counselor, though not of the Sanhedrin—as explained in the footnotes of the New Testament, but rather, an honorable one—of the Asayas—a good and just man awaiting the Kingdom of God. Besides, Joseph had owned the garden in which he had carved the tomb, and this is, unerringly, a Phoenician custom; they were reputed for making tombs in just such a manner,” the Professor revealed, giving closure.

  “You forgot something important, Brother Michel!” Dr. Najem said, and they all gazed at him in wonder. Now that he had their attention, he added, “Joseph of Rameh was a wealthy merchant. He owned a large fleet of Phoenician ships, and ran the tin trade for the Roman Empire between the Land of Tin—known in the old days as Bar-Tanak, the Phoenician name for Britain—and Phoenicia. We all know that the Phoenicians possessed a secret reservoir of Tin in Britain ever since the 6th century BC,” he halted for his final sip at his now cold tea. “They owned mines in Cornwall, west of England, and all across Ireland and Gaul (France), to Marseilles. Accordingly, they used to bring it home, or trade it around both the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas. Other than that, the Phoenicians shared, in the many voyages they made, their religious and theological mysteries with the Druids, the Celtic Priests of ancient Britain! At any rate, such a strong connection with the Romans allowed Joseph access to the body of Jesus, and the authority to bury him in his garden. Of course, Pilate knew Jesus was not a Jew!” he revealed.

  “That’s an important detail indeed,” Nabil agreed with bright eyes.

  Time stood still for some moments…

  The New Testament had swapped the original location of Rameh, exactly as it had done with Bethlehem and Kana. Behind this manipulation of facts lurked, no doubt, an iniquitous purpose to mislead the people on the true Historical identity of Jesus Christ, his family, and friends. Or… was the New Testament actually written in codes? Paul thought.

  “In reality, the death of Jesus mirrors the death of Adonis, the son of ‘Al’, killed by a boar, and the legendary Phoenix, killed by fire,” Dr. Najem explained. “His Resurrection after three days mirrors both the resurrection of Adonis in the spring and that of the legendary Phoenix from his ashes, three days after. The Resurrection shook the foundations of the natural world, for it was an extension of it—a supernatural and spiritual power. ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him,’ wrote John in 13:31,” he wrapped up with a smile.

  The echoes, which followed that last sentence, held them all in respectful silence. Paul tried to absorb the immensity of all these revelations, poured on him in such a short lapse of time. Eight days had gone by, since he had first met the Keepers. He always sought the truth, but what he had experienced so far, inside the Fortress, was beyond his expectations. At this very moment, as he sat—the fifth among the four Keepers—soundless and absorbed, he wished for some time alone, to go over the voluminous amounts of information conveyed to him. Yet, his strong desire to know more, to reach the conclusion, and face the responsibility of his new role, won h
im over. He observed the three Masters and wondered, thrilled, who would decide to continue. Yet, they all remained calm, silent; perhaps indulging in thoughts he would never guess.

  They were five Keepers gathered at the Round Table, and there were five symbols fused into one—fixed on the lid of the wooden box in front of them. Every brother represents a symbol… what is my symbol? Paul wondered still. From where he sat, the side of the box facing him appeared more clearly than ever, and he noted a sign—a sign that had not been there before… a cross!

  Outside… the wind came to gradual calmness.

  The sign—a beautifully inscribed crucifix—grabbed his full attention, with new awareness dawning on him. That’s my symbol. He marveled for a few seconds, before he remembered Mariam, the wife of Gabriel, and the beautiful crucifix she had offered him before his departure. He remembered her reassurance that it was for his own safety, for he would one day need it. Without further delay, his hands, quivering with excitement, retrieved the crucifix from the front pocket of his shirt, and he examined it with renewed interest. He then distinguished, for the first time, an engraved word made up of two Phoenician letters ‘EL’! Paul loomed forward, over the sign on the box. Both crucifixes were, amazingly, identical!

  The clock on the wall marked 11:27 PM. Time had run by them too swiftly and they all looked very tired. They left.

  Paul spent more than half an hour outside the Fortress, admiring the starry blue sky above, and deliberating on the Holy Grail. The Holy Blood of Jesus Christ was his Royal Phoenician Blood. The night was beautifully clear; yet, his mind dwelt in confusion about a particular matter that needed an answer from the Keepers, first thing in the meeting, tomorrow afternoon!

  .35.

  The Great White Fraternity

  Thursday, November 11, 05:14 PM

  Early the next day nothing dwelt in Paul’s mind but the Tradition that Dr. Najem had constantly mentioned. He had named it: the Kabala and Paul believed that he would refer it to Enoch-Taautus—the father of the spiritual laws. In fact, the Tradition was—in both its Phoenician and Egyptian essence—the same, much more ancient than the Judaic Kabalistic System.

  Paul lost the notion of time, engrossed in his thoughts, while he ambled inside and outside the Fortress. When he joined the Keepers again in the living room, teatime had already created a relaxing mood around them. Acting as a family, where the absence of formalities spared one from mundane salutations, he nodded a hello in their direction with an easy smile, poured a cup of tea, and went to stand by the window. The Sun blasted its full radiance on the courtyard.

  “You might be wondering about the Tradition,” Professor Michel uttered from behind his shoulder.

  He veered to face the Professor, “As a matter of fact, I have been.”

  “Well, it certainly goes back to Hermes-Enoch. It all started with Enoch or Anak, the Canaano-Phoenician seer of Mt. Hermon, in Loubnan. Please note that the name Hermes, given to him by the Greeks at a later stage, might be a derivative of Hermon. Tradition says that Angels descended on top of Mt. Hermon, and taught him a great universal, spiritual, and occult doctrine that Enoch accepted and called the Kabala, which means accepting in the Phoenician-Hamitic language,” the Professor explained. “Enoch is Henoch or Phenoch, the Phoenix that symbolized the secret cycle and Initiation. He was the first Teacher-Initiator and possessor of the true mirific name. He linked Humanity through an eternal concordance with the Father. Later, Enoch walked down the Mountain, carrying the Tradition with him to Gebel. In fact, Gebel could be articulated as Geb-El in the Hamitic tongue, and means the Sacred Land of Al. I believe you already know that,” he looked at Paul with a smile, as he walked around him. “There, in Gebel, Enoch established his doctrine, and built a Temple to the God ‘Al’, the Most High. Originally, he’d built it in the image of the open semi-Temple he’d previously erected with the help of his first adepts at Mt. Hermon—the Mountain of Acceptance and of the Meetings. This semi-Temple was composed of a flat horizontal rock, lying at the top of a wide vertical rock, thus forming an altar, framed by two pillars,” he paused, dwelling in his memory for a moment.

  It flashed on Paul like rays of thunder, or, in a metaphysical sense, like the rays of the Divine Monad. An altar… the twin pillars… Gebel!

  “The vast star-illuminated sky above Mt. Hermon stretched as dome for the Temple,” he continued. “The sky was God’s habitat, surrounded by Angels. The altar at the top of the Mountain created the proper link between Earth and Heaven, man and God, and that, through the ever ascending and descending energies processed by the power of the two Pillars. In Gebel, later on, the adepts of Enoch-Taautus built the Great Phoenician Temple, its Mystery Chamber with a cubical altar—having one pillar on each side. They then ornamented the walls with shapes, numbers…”

  His words echoed… Paul recalled almost everything inside the Mystery Chamber, in particular, the wall painting of the Phoenician High Priest in a sacred ritual—the finest ever. He could almost see it in front of him; the cubical altar, the bright golden stone on the Left Pillar with the ear of wheat, the glowing purple stone on the Right Pillar with the vine, the constellations of the Zodiac, the Taurus Constellation, and the seven Heavenly Bodies.

  Professor Michel grabbed his forearm gently, and gestured him to sit on the leather sofa nearby. Although the setting was different from the one at the Round Table, Paul abided, somehow knowing the narration would be long. Professor Michel slouched on the sofa by Paul’s side, retrieved his eyeglasses, cleaning them with a tissue, and pursued his commentary, “Enoch, the High Priest, performed on the altar the most sacred ritual of all, that of wine and bread. The purple stone is the wine, while the golden stone is the bread. Melki-Sedek practiced the same rite, later on, in the Temple of Shalim in Jerusalem!”

  Wheat and Vine… Bread and Wine! the link had not escaped his wit. Jesus Christ performed this rite at the last supper! he refreshed his memory with a brief look at Dr. Bechara, nearing them noiselessly with a cup of tea in his hand.

  “From the ancient port of Gebel, Enoch and some of his adepts, sailed to the Land of Ham, and introduced the Tradition to Egyptian priests in Memphis and Giza, where the Pyramids were built. Enoch-Thor became Thot-Taautus in the Egyptian Religion. The Pyramid denoted nothing more than a grandiose symbol of the Temple of God, dedicated by the Egyptians to their divine messenger: Thot-Taautus,” Professor Michel explained, introducing the history of the Tradition.

  Dr. Najem joined them, as did Nabil, and they both took their seats on the other sofa, facing them. Paul watched the circle of five coming together in a genuine consensus, and an odd feeling invaded him all of a sudden, for he found himself surrounded by avant-garde erudite people. Now a member of this great ancient Fraternity, he deemed it highly important to learn everything he could.

  “After being established in Canaan and Egypt,” Dr. Bechara commented, “The Tradition journeyed around the world. In fact, Enock (Anak) the Canaano-Phoenician became a Metatron, standing before God. Therefore, we consecrate Wednesday, yesterday, as his holy day. We have mentioned this to you before, but it’s worth reminding you about it,” he smiled.

  It hit him at once that his regular meetings with Padre Joseph had always occurred on Wednesdays, for no particular reason, or so he had assumed. Was visiting him on that day an unconscious choice of mine? Was it a coincidence? He inwardly shrugged off the thought. I don’t believe in coincidences… not anymore, and definitely never again after my unintentional first meeting with these soberly confident scholars around me, he concluded within the depths of his mind.

  He observed them discreetly, and then watched as Dr. Bechara walked calmly to the buffet to pour another cup of tea. A delicious aroma of canella drifted about—warm, soothing, and spicy—and grew stronger, as he drew nearer to the circle. He sat sideways on the armrest of one of the antique Henri II armchairs at Paul’s right, and talked, as he slowly spun the teaspoon in his cup. He said that Enoch was known as Mithra to
the Hindus and Persians, Enki/Ea in Mesopotamia, Nebo in the Babylonian mythology, Quetzalcóatl to the Mexican Aztecs, Thor in the Scandinavian tradition, Hermes-Kadmos in Greece, and Mercury in Rome.

  “He was Adam-Kadmon for the Kabalists,” Dr. Bechara added, “He later became Edris for the Arabs and the Muslims, and recently, Enoch for the Druzes. Sometimes, the father of the spiritual laws—considered as the divine messenger who accepted the word of God—was also regarded as the god of wisdom and science.” He took the time to sip from his tea, and then continued, “Later on, the Chaldean savants and magi used the Kabala, based on the esoteric meanings of the Alphabet, incorporating one of the most ancient languages on Earth, to invoke the spirits, either in the written form of talisman, or in the oral form of incantation. That was surely a deviation from its original source.”

  A moment of reflection passed in which Paul poured more tea in his cup, and passed the carafe around, followed by the tray of biscuits.