The Hunt for the Tree of Life (Book One 1)

by Zulu, Arthur

  These believers forget that the Bible says that Adam and Eve were created and put in a well-watered garden—the names of the waters are rivers on earth, not in heaven.

  The Garden of Eden is on a high mountain.

  The altitude of high mountains has equally fascinated humankind as a place of bliss compared to their troubled terrain. It is no wonder then that humans have taken to the dangerous pastime of mountaineering to escape the drudgery of life in the lower land. There must be something of interest to discover up there, and that includes Eden and the tree of life.

  But they did not remember that Eden was enclosed by mountains—it was not on top of a mountain.

  Besides, trees don’t grow on mountains.

  The Garden of Eden is in the North Pole.

  The North Pole is the northernmost part of the earth. It is an uninhabited cold part of the earth, only perfect for polar bears, some fish, and birds.

  Also called the Geographic North Pole, or the Terrestrial North Pole, the North Pole is perhaps one of the strangest places on earth. In that place, all directions face south, all longitudinal lines merge there, there is no time in the North Pole, and sun rise and sun set take place once a year.

  The geographic oddity of the North Pole might have led to the supposition that the Garden of Eden resides there.

  There are, however, forbidding factors for such a claim. The North Pole is covered with ice—trees don’t grow on ice. And the nearest land to the North Pole is Kaffeflubben Island, 700 kilometers off the northern coast of Greenland.

  The Garden of Eden is in the South Pole.

  The South Pole, situated in Antarctica, is antipodal to the North Pole. Known as the Geographic South Pole, or the Terrestrial South Pole, it is the most southern part of the earth.

  The South Pole is icy, formless and dry, and without any human, animal, or plant habitation. All longitudinal lines converge there and point north, time is absent in the South Pole, and half of the year is covered in darkness.

  It is therefore foolhardy for anyone to suggest this inhospitable terrain as the traditional location of the Garden of Eden and the tree of life. Just as no one can survive there, Adam and Eve could not equally have lived there.

  The lack of plant and animal life is also a minus in the theory.

  The Garden of Eden is in the Moon.

  Earth’s only satellite, the moon, has been fingered as a possible location of Eden.

  It has inspired the muses and myths, which include the Man in the Moon, the witch with the sticks, including rabbits, hare, frog, and dragon tales.

  These stories persisted until two American astronauts landed there in 1969. They saw no humans, animals or trees, but mountains, craters, and molten lava, and the moon has no weather or an atmosphere.

  Eden or the tree of life was not there. Adam and his wife couldn’t have lived there.

  But this tree of life can only be found if it ever existed and if the Flood of Noah was not a myth.

  Of skeptics of the Deluge the Bible says: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights. And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered.”—Gen. 7:11, 12, 19

  That was an apocalyptic description. What provoked God to break “open the floodgates of the heavens”?

  The earth was filled with wickedness. Angels had left heaven to marry beautiful women on earth. They begot giants called Nephilim, who perpetrated violence on earth.

  So God decided to destroy the world with water and asked Noah to make a rectangular three-story ark, which took him about 50-60 years to build. Noah and his wife, his three sons—Shem Ham, and Japheth—and their wives, including a pair of every land animal and flying creature, and a sufficient supply of food, were to be inside the ark.

  Noah did as told and God made it rain “forty days and forty nights” so that the tallest mountain on earth was 6.5 meters below water. Every land and flying creatures outside the ark died!

  Noah’s ark rested on Mount Ararat five months after the cataclysm. Noah first sent out a raven and later a dove, which came back with a twig in its beak, a confirmation that the water had receded. Therefore, after 370/371 days in the ark—over a year—Noah and his family and the birds and animals stepped out of the ark onto dry ground.

  Noah made a sacrifice to God who later made a covenant with him that He would not destroy the world again with water. A rainbow which had appeared in the sky was the sign of the covenant.

  Now, is this story fact or fiction?

  There is secular evidence of the Flood outside the Bible history.

  Archaeologists have found animals that were quickly frozen and fossils of different other animals in the same strata! And the frozen animals had fresh food in their mouths and bellies.

  Also, there were primitive people in times past who celebrated a “Feast of Ancestors” or a “Festival of the Dead” on or about the seventeenth of November. This corresponds to the second month of the year when the Deluge commenced. And these lands are as far apart as Australia and Mexico.

  The most supporting proof of the Flood, however, is the over 270 Flood stories in almost all tribes and nations, told and retold to several generations. The legends have a common narrative: destruction by a Deluge, few survivors, and saved in a vessel. Some of the myths go back to the days of Adam and the destructive giants.

  Like the Hindu myth of Matsya the fish who saved Manu the man during a flood . . .

  The Hindus believe that while Manu, mankind’s foremost ancestor, was washing himself, Matsya the fish came around and said that if Matsya reared him he would save him from a great flood in a ship. Matsya did, and during the flood the fish pulled the ship northward to a mountain where he asked Matsya to fasten it to a tree and to gently descend after the water receded.

  Like the Akkadian fable of the frustrated man Gilgamesh who sought eternity advice from Utnapishtim, a flood remnant . . .

  The Epic of Gilgamesh told of the demi-god, Gilgamesh, who built temples for gods and caused a great discomfort for the natives of Uruk by ravishing women and virgins. The people cried to the gods, and Aruru the goddess, made the man, Enkidu, to challenge Gilgamesh. But instead of becoming rivals, they both became close friends so that when Enkidu died, the distraught Gilgamesh roamed the land in dread of death. Not wanting to die, he sought and found the immortal Utnapishtim, the flood survivor. Utnapishtim recounted to him the pre-flood instructions given him to build a ship to save his life and all living things.

  Like the Aztec story of giants and men who turned fish to survive a flood . . .

  The Aztecs of Central Mexico believed that in the first of the four ages of man, giants lived on earth. At that time Tlaloc the god of rain caused the tears of sacrificed victims to stimulate rainfall and the world became one big ball of water. During the reign of Chalchiuhtlicue, the water goddess, in the fourth era, the world was eclipsed with water and men survived by becoming fish!

  The Flood caused major changes on earth today.

  One is a drastic reduction in life expectancy resulting from harmful radiation after the earth lost its protective water shield. People lived longer before the Flood: Methuselah, (969 years); Noah, (950 years); Adam, (930 years); Kenan, (910 years); Enosh, (905 years); Mahalalel, (895 years); and Lamech, (777 years). Life is so short now.

  In addition, there is more water on earth today than land. The earth is 70% covered with water, much of which is locked in continental ice shelves.

  Furthermore, the Flood affected the geology of the earth. Mountains rose, sea basins deepened, and coastlines were born as continental plates moved. The land was shallower before the Deluge but has risen today to contain the excess water.

  Now, since the Flood caused such
colossal changes on earth, could it have affected the location of Eden and the tree of life?

  America and China will figure this out in the epoch-making and titanic adventure.

  The first country to nurse ambition for the eternal cure was China. The early Chinese searched for an elixir of life. The modern Chinese wanted to continue from where their ancestors stopped and take it to the next level.

  However, the Chinese quest was leaked through an intelligence report to President Bill Godsend of the United States of America who swore to beat China to it. And it was proving true. Although China was the first country to send an exploratory mission to Turkey, the supposed location of Eden, it was America, which came later, that was making progress.

  The Americans saw no Eden, but chanced on a report concerning an ancient tribe that worshiped a stone by the Aegean Sea. The legend had it that there were two large stones on which were inscribed a mystic two-line poem about Eden.

  One of the stones, according to the myth, was placed in the original Garden of Eden, where the four rivers flowed, while the second was in the land where Methuselah lived.

  Tradition had it that Noah’s Flood buried Eden and the stone in the garden, but that the other stone was washed into the neighboring Aegean Sea.

  No one knew who wrote the words on the stone and why they did, but since the second stone was in Methuselah’s land, it came to be called the Methuselah poem.

  America invested personnel and resources to find this stone in the Aegean Sea and were making progress.

  When the Chinese found that the Americans had taken the lead in the golden quest, they changed their game plan. They deployed a spy satellite to watch the Americans.

  They were no longer actively searching, but spying.

  The Chinese destroyed the stone when the Americans found it in the sea, only to later discover that America already had the photo of the poem.

  Yet, there was no winner or loser. Because the Americans who had the poem did not still know the meaning of the contradictory lines.

  Time flies. It had taken a year for the Americans to track the stone and find the poem. Only the nine sisters could tell how long it would take Professor Muse (UCLA, Emory, Harvard, and Nobel laureate) to interpret it and say where Eden was. His meeting with the FBI director didn’t produce results. The professor was lecturing the director on Hebrew semantics. But he hadn’t come to listen to lectures.

  However, the director knew that the professor wouldn’t disappoint. Professors of the top world universities do not fail. Nobel laureates are Nobel laureates.

  So Mr. Catcher, who had been to see the professor so many times before, had quietly gone back. Hopeful. Confident that Professor Muse will find answer to all the biblical and mythological maze by interpreting the defying poem. He has been patient and his patience will pay off someday.

  The director knew that interpreting poetry was like solving crossword puzzles in mysterious crime scenes. The Nobel laureate’s Eureka moment will come.

  Meanwhile, the volumes of poetry books and works on poetry appreciation have not helped the professor. All those academic exercises on versification, syllabication, rhyming and the rest have come to nothing. Why are teachers teaching these things anyway if they cannot lead to the interpretation of a two-line poem?

  Not even the energy drinks have been helpful. He gazed at the bottles and the empty glass in front of him. Why did they make these drinks? Or was it all energy without an ounce of inspiration?

  He would solve this poetry problem the old way—the innocent way. He remembered decades ago when he was a young schoolboy. When faced with a difficult class work, he would close his eyes for inspiration and open them again. Sometimes he got answers, sometimes nothing. He would do that now.

  He closed his eyes. Darkness. After a long while he opened them. No clues. No answers. He was staring at the ceiling. Embarrassing.

  Then he tried another school boy approach: Slow reading.

  He read the poem slowly indicating each word with his index finger as if he had never seen it before:

  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

  Did it work? No inspiration. So what would he tell the president?

  Crossroads. Disgrace. Infamy.

  On the face of it, it was a simple poem that he was mandated to interpret. Why? Simple things can sometimes be difficult.

  Suddenly, he got a hunch. Yes, an epiphany, a bright idea. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He wondered. What a shame! Sometimes the human brain plays games. He would compose an ode to the brain after this, and call it Cerebral Song. Each stanza of the poem would be devoted to eulogizing each part of the brain. How many parts were there in the human brain? He wouldn’t remember that now.

  The professor realized that keys to knotty questions were not always found in faraway Timbuktu. Or in down under Australia. It could be close home—at one’s finger tips.

  He smiled, gave himself a high five accompanied with a couple dance steps, dialed a telephone number, and listened to the phone ringing at the other side.

  What a jig! Interesting times!

  Why is there no ukulele for celebrating in this secretive and mysterious Methuselah house of his?

  Away with the mystery! Away with the secrets! Because he was tantalizingly close to the answer . . .

  Chapter 2

  Stanford University is a leading research institution at Palo Alto, California. It was this university that the White House had asked to produce the best Hebrew professors to translate the Methuselah poem after it was recovered from the sea, and cryptologists to explain it and the accompanying symbols, before sending it to Professor Muse for interpretation.

  That was not a problem. A team of six Hebrew professors and two cryptologists had assembled for the purpose. They were in a two-story building at the university waiting for the photo of the poem, very eager to begin work. However, it was taking time for the FBI to send the image. They were having problems developing the film in the photo laboratory.

  Now, the news came: It seemed that the laboratory technicians could not develop the image of the poem—the film looked damaged. The enthusiasm of the expectant experts was dampened. How they wished to get the chance to work on this rare ancient script and justify their fabulous advance payment. Why couldn’t the laboratory technicians get this right? What happened to the film?

  But the photo technicians were the most worried. They must develop the image of this poem from the film. They had been told that the Chinese had destroyed the source of the poem. The American naval officers had risked their lives in the seas to regain the lost camera with the film. They had to play their part. What magic would they do now?

  The naval photographer had taken a number of shots at the stone in the sea bed before the Chinese destroyed it. But they were hurried snapshots.

  The first two shots cut the poem vertically into two equal parts—the left half and the right half. The third and fourth cut it horizontally—one had one line and the other had the second line. The fifth film had the complete lines but they were obscured by a pair of marine fish swimming playfully on the surface of the stone.

  The sixth film had the best result but the lines were blurred. Whether it was owing to the quality of the shot or the fact that the film had been long in sea water, no one was sure.

  The best that the photo technicians could do was to enlarge the image after developing and re-developing the film. A Hebrew expert, they thought, should be able to figure out any missing letters and match them together to make a readable poem.

  And they were right!

  Professor Joseph Daniel was the head of the team of Hebrew professors at Stanford who did the translation. The Methuselah poem was written in Hebrew like this:

  השיטפוןבא, וטיאטאאתהעץשלחייםהלאה, אפילועדן+o

  עדיין, הגןוהעץנשארים, כ/כפיש
אלוהיםפסקבהתחלה+o

  After reading the poem, he smiled. He could have single-handedly done the translation, but team work was team work.

  One mysterious thing about the assignment was that all the translators first took an oath of secrecy before being given the job. They merely shrugged it off; they were well paid.

  The color of the dollar was worth a thousand oaths!

  Professor Daniel made copies of the cryptic poem, shared it to all the members and asked each of them to turn in their translation in 24 hours.

  That was another thing about the project. It was to be done post-haste.

  The professor wanted to harmonize the translations. He wanted to know if his colleagues were seeing what he was seeing. When the professors met again and compared notes, their translations were unanimous:

  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

  Only two professors used two synonyms in their translations. One replaced Flood with Water, while the other replaced Tree with Fruit. They both defended their choice of words saying that the words came from the same Hebrew roots. But the other professors joked about their love for water and fruits. And they all laughed heartily.

  The six members, including Professor Daniel, however, signed their signatures at the bottom of the common version, handed it over to the two waiting security operatives, and wondered American government’s interest in two contradictory lines of an ancient Hebrew poem.

  Mr. Sayer Oracle, a middle-aged man, spent twelve years in Egypt studying symbology. His study covered Egyptian civilization to Middle Eastern studies and European fraternities. He was versed in the ancient secrets of these lands, including their gods, goddesses, and mythology.

  Dr. Lipson Divine, on the other hand, was grey-headed in his eighties, and spoke with the authority of a god. He studied cryptology and ancient cultism in India. He was knowledgeable in the secrets and fraternities of India, Asia, and the South Americas.