by Zulu, Arthur
What Others are Saying about the Thriller
“This was a delightful, tongue-in-cheek romp, full of spies, all looking for a secret to change the world. Very entertaining!”-- Thora D. Dorn.
“Intriguing. Good idea. The Tree of Life - we may never see again as there are 'none righteous' until End Times when post Judgment the Way is paved in Gold and lined with the medicinal Trees of Life. Sounds like a journey of lost souls.” --Tom Balderston
“Yeah, where is that tree? Getting tired of perpetual war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's time to look for that tree. You have an interesting satire on your hands. A little Swiftian, eh? If I could find that elixir, I'd have all the time I'd need.” --KW
“Any story about an elixir to banish death forever is exciting to me. Your plot is creative and clever and it has stimulated the grey matter which is good. . . . You have a good sense of geography, of course Biblical knowledge as well, and I like the political intrigue. You have an impressive imagination,” said Zan.
“The pace is quick as the mystery of the poem and tension between the super powers mounts. All that is very well-written. I liked your style and the professor, on his seventh energy drink, and thought that was a fine way to begin, although the mood gets more serious as the story progresses.” --Barry Wenlock
“I would like to commend you on the skill you have and the imagination and the talent in writing this work of art of yours. I wish I had half of your talent. Where does one get such original work like this, such a gift! I feel sure you feel like me that it is your baby and you so want to see it succeed. I do wish you all the best in rising and also getting this book of yours published.” –Denise
“All original ideas deserve to succeed and this is no different. Well written with plenty of intrigue and the promise of more to come.”--Patrick Barret
“An interesting take on the age old Ponce De Leon story, in a way. You present as compelling plot. Your writing is taut and moves quickly, with plenty of momentum to carry readers on ahead.” --Christian Piatt
“It's a great idea - and people love a search mystery with clues! You already have me trying to interpret the poem. Your first chapter is great - giving us the nervous professor, the poem, the mystery. The dialogue works well, the sentences are spare and not overblown or telling instead of showing. The race between China and America adds tension, too. And you just KNOW we are going to read on to find out just what, and where, the tree is.” --Cariad
“I love your plot of the search for the tree of life. Your beckoning pitch made me want to read your book & your tight paragraphs & dialogue kept me reading. Great intriguing write! Hope you'll write many more books.” – Susie
Arthur Zulu
THE HUNT FOR THE TREE OF LIFE
Book One
Published by Arthur Zulu at Smashwords
© Copyright 2014, Arthur Zulu
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FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS
What is the meaning of the Methuselah poem?
Which character in the story successfully accomplished his task?
What advice would you give the adventurers?
What do you think will happen next in Book Two?
FICTION DISCLAIMER
This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this story are purely fictional. Any resemblance to any person or thing whether living or dead is purely coincidental.
DEDICATION
For the memory of my grandmother, Osodi Ojimiwe, who loved me with a great love.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Bible quotations in this book are taken from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
BIBLE FACT
There used to be a tree of life in Eden. The Garden of Eden also existed.
THE METHUSELAH POEM
The Flood came and swept the tree of life away, even Eden+o
Yet, the garden and the tree remain, as God decreed at the beginnin’+o
Chapter 1
Professor Muse shrugged his shoulders. What a poem! Six weeks had gone by. Yet, he was as puzzled as when he first read the mystery poem.
It was 8 A.M. and he had already taken half a dozen energy drinks. He was now on the seventh. He adjusted himself in his seat and read the first line for the umpteenth time:
The Flood came and swept the tree of life away, even Eden+o
Well, that was pretty straightforward. The Hebrew people were gifted poets and sometimes their poems could be frank to a fault.
However, it was not all that simple when he read the second and the last line of the poem:
Yet, the tree and the garden remain, as God decreed at the beginnin’+o
There was no clue to the present location of Eden and the tree of life. But that was the message he would pass on to Mr. Mark Catcher, the director of the FBI, when he comes at midday.
The professor put the two lines together trying again to understand the contradictory lines:
The Flood came and swept the tree of life away, even Eden+o
Yet, the tree and the garden remain, as God decreed at the beginnin’+o
Intriguing, he thought, rising and looking out of the window into the misty Washington morning.
The White House had given him this lavishly furnished house with living rooms, a catering staff, a library of poetry books, and a handsome life salary for the sole purpose of interpreting the poem.
Who else could have been entrusted with such an onerous responsibility? After ten years at the University of California in Los Angeles, fifteen years at Emory and Harvard Universities, and a Nobel Prize in literature, Professor Muse Letterman was the most suitable to explain the ancient poem and say the location of Eden and the tree of life.
Only a few remember that his first name was Jones. He earned the moniker, Muse, after interpreting a sonnet that had baffled his colleagues at Harvard by just reading the first and the last fourteenth lines.
But now, the Muse seemed to be failing him.
Where-is-the-tree-of-life?
The answer depended in knowing where Eden was. He looked at the Hebrew version of the poem to determine if some letters that could provide a hint to the meaning were missing:
השיטפוןבא, וטיאטאאתהעץשלחייםהלאה, אפילועדן+o
עדיין, הגןוהעץנשארים, כ/כפישאלוהיםפסקבהתחלה+o
He was not an authority in the language, but he found no missing lines. They were just two Hebrew lines ending with the same m
ystic symbols. A team of professors at Stanford University had done the Hebrew-to-English translation. So there could be no fault in the English rendering. Hebrew must be the language of equivocators, he thought.
Why do they call this the Methuselah poem? He might just as well be living in Methuselah house! House of mystery. House of secrets. He shrugged his shoulders again.
The professor now decided to reread the cryptological interpretation accompanying the poem by the cryptologists. He did not know how many times he had read it. He sat and read it again:
An Interpretation of the Symbol of the Methuselah Poem by Cryptologists, Dr. Lipson Divine and Mr. Sayer Oracle
The +o symbol following the Methuselah poem is a pointer to the location of the Garden of Eden and the tree of life. The + sign stands for the pagan cross, originating from Tammuz, the deified Nimrod. Worshipers of the Babylonian gods used the symbol, which was later adopted in modern religious worship.
The o sign represents the sun which rises from the East, and could be a reference to ancient worshipers of the sun god, Mithras. However, the circular symbol can be found on church windows of today.
When we looked at the composite sign +o, we think it might mean a sex symbol used in worship at the temple of Ishtar, goddess of love and war. Also, the complete symbol could represent the cross and circular signs on church windows.
We looked at it again in conclusion and think that the whole sign refers to either a pagan temple or a church.
The above is the interpretation of the symbol +o with reference to the poem.
Signed by: Dr. Lipson Divine and Mr. Sayer Oracle
The professor laughed for the first time after rereading this, and stood up again. That was the vaguest report that he had ever read! Why? An interpretation of the symbol should assist him in explaining this baffling poem. But it seemed that even the renowned symbologists were more confused.
They were doing permutation—simple guesswork. Either North or South. Heaven or earth. Land or sea. Black or white. They were not sure of anything. Just shuffling cards. They should have been conjurers!
Talk of sex symbol. Is this supposed to be a love story? Were they suggesting that the tree of life is in the temple of Ishtar or Cupid? Or which pagan god or goddess for that matter was housing Eden and the tree of life? Ridiculous!
Also, which church were they talking about? Is it the old Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, or the Egyptian Coptic Church? Is it the Anglican Church, the Church of God, the New Jerusalem Church, the Mormon Church, or the Church of Christ Scientists?
He wanted to search on-line for names of churches, but he gave it up. That would only compound the problem. He would get one million results!
How could Eden and the tree of life be in one of those places? And who could undertake the task of finding it? They were talking from two sides of the mouth!
It reminded him of Croesus, the stupendously wealthy king of Lydia. The king had gone to the oracle at Delphi to inquire if he would win a war against King Cyrus the Great of Persia. “If Croesus crosses the Halys, he would destroy a mighty empire,” the oracle had told him.
The all-believing King Croesus went to war against King Cyrus but he was defeated by the Persians and chained as a prisoner. The punch line was that the oracle later told him that it was his fault because when he heard the prophecy, he didn’t ask whose kingdom would fall.
King Croesus was done in by double talk. Not for a professor like Muse. It was not the cryptologists but the Nobel laureate who had the answer.
Now, where was the original garden of bliss?
As the professor stood contemplating, the FBI director drove in. He quickly sat, waiting . . .
Knowing the meaning of the poem was crucial. It would open the way to the location of the lost tree of life in Eden. America and China needed it to make an elixir of life in a new world superpower game.
In the Bible book of Genesis chapter 2, it said that God made Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and put them in Eden. This was a garden of eternal bliss, by a river of four tributaries and abundant fruit trees.
God had commanded the pair to eat of every fruit of all the trees of the garden except one. In chapter 2 verse 17, it clearly says: “But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Well, Adam and Eve, deceived by the Devil, ate the forbidden fruit, fell under the sentence of death, and died. But they would have lived on if they had gotten hold of the fruit of another tree in the same garden: the tree of life.
To prevent them from reaching this tree, God did something according to Genesis chapter 3 verse 24: “And so he drove man out and posted at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubs and flaming blades of a sword that was turning itself continually to guard the way to the tree of life.”
It is that way to the fruit tree that gives eternal life that America and China were searching for. The first country to reach it would remain the undisputed world superpower throughout eternity.
The fruit of the tree would be used to develop a panacea for sickness, aging, and death. Adam and Eve would have reversed death if they had braved the cherubs and the flaming swords and eaten of the fruit.
Next to the long life that the citizens of the discoverer would enjoy is the economic power. The elixir would generate massive revenue from patients around the world, and the country has the right to save or allow the rest of the world to perish.
There were indications that the two contending nations would discover Eden and the tree of life because of stories of lost golden ages—a reference to that perfect beginning.
Of the Persians and the perfect world of the fair Yima created by the god, Ahura Mazda . . .
The Persians tell of the fair Yima or the good shepherd. He was created by Ahura Mazda and given charge of the world. His race was beautiful, they lived perfectly, had excellent health and lived among sweet-smelling trees and pillars made of gold.
Of the Greeks and their happy beginning before beautiful Pandora was given in marriage to Epimetheus by the Olympian god, Zeus . . .
In the golden age of ancient Greeks, men lived a happy life free from pain, suffering, and death. This tranquility ended after Zeus, the Olympian god, gave beautiful Pandora in marriage to Epimetheus. Then one fateful day, Pandora opened the lid of her box and there came out woes of every kind to plague humankind forever.
Of the Chinese remembering the lost golden ages of the ancient Chinese emperors . . .
The Chinese had a golden age, a legend, and a character that reminds us of the early history of man. In their golden age, they had a Yellow Emperor called Huang-Ti who ruled for a hundred years.
During this time, there was superlative development in China with peaceful people, hospitable weather and friendly birds and animals that never killed humans. A legend in that same land tells of the age of the “Period of the Great Ten” emperors, which ended in a Flood. One of the ancient rulers, Yu, called the conqueror of the Great Flood, was said to have resettled his people by diverting the Flood waters into rivers and seas.
In Chinese writing, the character for “ship” is a combination of vessel, eight, and persons—a representation of Noah’s eight family members in that floating ark.
Of the Kikuyus of Kenya and their creation story of Gikuyu by the god, Ngai, who put him and his wife in the beautiful land of MukurwewaGathanga by Mt. Kirinyaga . . .
The Kikuyus of Kenya have a fable about Ngai, the God of the universe and their creator who lived at Mount Kenya called Kirinyaga. The story goes that Ngai took Gikuyu, their tribal father, and apportioned him a land with rivers, valleys, forests, rich fruits, and animals, and retired to Kirinyaga.
One day, Ngai, while examining his beautiful earth, took Gikuyu to the peak of Kirinyaga. From there, he pointed out to Gikuyu a place in the middle of the country where wild figs abounded called MukurwewaGathanga.
When Gi
kuyu went to this exquisite land, he found a beautiful woman called Mumbi, meaning Molder or Creator. He married her and they had children.
Of South African Zulus and their Unkulunkulu- chameleon-lizard story . . .
The Zulus of South Africa say that Unkulunkulu, the Creator, sent the slow-moving chameleon to give mankind the message: “You will not die!” But the chameleon delayed on the way. So Unkulunkulu reversed the errand through the lizard saying: “You will die!” Since the fast lizard made the journey first, death has been the destiny of man ever after.
Of the bizarre Inca story of underworld resurrection . . .
The Incas of South America say that the creator, after giving each nation a separate language, commanded them to sink under the earth. Passing underground, they then came to their different assigned places.
These mythical accounts all point to humankind’s perfect beginning in the Garden of Eden before they lost life and paradise. To regain life and that golden age is the reason for the search of the life-giving tree of life.
However, some Bible scholars believe that Eden has been destroyed. But when and why it came about, nobody knows.
Yet, others say that Eden still exists, but not in the original location. This view was popularized by the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, who held that nothing perfect could exist on earth. But the Scripture states that everything that God has created including the earth was very good—a synonym for perfection.
So, where are the suggested locations of Eden?
The Garden of Eden is in heaven.
Man has long believed that heaven is a state of perfect bliss. The Bible describes heaven in superlative terms, of God in His exalted throne, and of multitude of worshipful angels.
However, there is no mention of land surface in heaven, or of verdant vegetation. Yet, this paradise setting seems to man the perfect location of Eden.
