The Jericho Deception: A Novel by Jeffrey Small

Author:Jeffrey Small [Small, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense, Fiction, General, Thrillers
ISBN: 193351244X
Amazon: B00BAHA0MK
Publisher: West Hills Press
Published: 2013-05-02T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 35

THE MONASTERY

Ethan followed Wolfe across the marble floor of the chapel. Wood buttresses rose from the plaster walls to support the cathedral ceiling. He marveled at the detail that had gone into building the facility. Murals covered each of the walls. Although he hadn’t been to church since his mother dragged him to Sunday school as a teenager, he recognized the depiction of the life of Jesus: the birth in Bethlehem, the baptism by John, the healing of cripples, the feeding of the masses, the crucifixion, and—the final scene, depicted in brilliant hues as if the paint were backlit—the resurrection.

Wolfe placed a hand on his shoulder. “When these men come to us, they’ve already been broken. They’ve been tortured to the brink of death, usually by their own people. We offer them hope, a chance to reclaim their lives.” He dropped his hand and leaned on a baroque-looking throne set on a raised platform in front of the altar. “But we also offer them something one of their ayatollahs never could. We offer them a much more powerful experience.” His grin widened. “We offer them the chance to experience God, in this lifetime, without having to martyr themselves first.”

As if on cue, Ethan’s eyes caught the inscription etched underneath the fifteen-foot-tall stained glass cross over the altar. The chill running across his skin seemed to penetrate to the depths of his marrow. He stepped around the throne and peered up at the inscription written in ancient Greek: Εν αρχη ην ο λογος, και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον, και θεος ην ο λογος.

He imagined that behind the stained glass were lights that would illuminate the cross and the inscription when turned on. Although he wasn’t fluent in the language of the New Testament, he knew immediately the meaning of the phrase. A single word repeated three times in the inscription called out to him: λογος.

Logos.

He recited from memory, “In the beginning was the Word . . .”

“And the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” Wolfe completed.

“The prologue to the Gospel of John.”

Five years earlier, when Elijah first outlined to his graduate student his idea of converting a TMS machine into a device that could induce mystical experiences, he’d also explained why he would call the machine the Logos.

The first verses of John’s Gospel, composed in Greek at the end of the first century, used the term Logos to describe the eternal nature of God as the source of all creation. Logos was usually translated as “word.” Elijah had explained that the Hebrew Bible, what Christians called the Old Testament, frequently referred to the power of God’s word as well. In the beginning of Genesis, for example, God spoke the universe into being: “And God said, let there be light.”

“But the translation of Logos as ‘word’ misses the essence of the term,” Elijah had said. “It’s more like language or discourse.”

“So Logos doesn’t refer to a specific word?” Ethan had asked.

“Logos is an organizing structure, like a language.

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