The Six Messiahs - Mark Frost [24]
"Aristotle," said Stern and Doyle.
"Right-o."
"Did those original manuscripts survive?" asked Doyle.
"Perhaps; the Zohar was written in Aramaic, the language of second-century Palestine. Authorship of the original remains in dispute, but it is most often attributed to an obscure thirteenth-century rabbi who lived in Spain, Moses de Leon. Only two surviving manuscripts of De Leon's original work have been found; one is called the Tikkunei Zohar, a short addendum written some years after the main book. The Tikkunei was obtained last year from Oxford by the University of Chicago for study by a group of Jewish-American scholars—among whom my father, Rabbi Jacob Stern, as you correctly surmised, Mr. Doyle, is one of the foremost.
"After long negotiations, my partner and I have just secured the temporary loan of the oldest complete handwritten manuscript of the Book of Zohar. Called the Gerona Zohar; it dates from the early fourteenth century and was discovered years ago at the site of an ancient temple near Gerona, Spain. There's been tremendous controversy among experts about the Gerona Zohar's authenticity; my father and his colleagues hope that with both books in their possession they can compare them side by side and resolve these questions once and for all."
"Right, so what's so special about this old Bologna Zohar?" asked Innes, stifling a yawn.
"Gerona. To be honest, I've never studied it myself. I'm a businessman, rare books are my trade not my passion; I have no training or interest in such an academic undertaking. But my father, who's studied the Kabbalah for close to thirty years, would tell you he believes this book, if successfully decoded, will provide man with the answer to the mystery of creation, the identity of our creator, and the exact nature of the relationship between us."
"Mmph. Tall order, that," said Innes, displaying his natural gift for understatement.
"No one's managed it yet, have they?" said Doyle.
"It's all Greek to me," said Stern. "I wouldn't know what the mystery of creation was if it jumped up and stole my hat; all I'm told is that among the men my father keeps faith with, the Book of Zohar is reputed to contain the hidden key that will unlock the secret meanings of the Torah. ..."
"The first five books of the Old Testament," said Doyle.
"Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy," said Innes, counting his fingers to remember—behind his back—-as he'd been taught to do in Sunday school.
"... and that the Torah was allegedly transcribed directly from the teachings that Moses supposedly received from God on Mount Sinai."
"Allegedly; supposedly."
"As you also correctly observed, Mr. Doyle, I am not by temperament or inclination in even the slightest way a religious man. If there is an all-powerful, all-knowing God, and if He had intended for man to solve the riddle of his own creation, I seriously doubt He would have gone to all the trouble of hiding the answer in the pages of a musty old book."
"A book which, nevertheless, you now believe someone is willing to kill you for."
"I didn't say the book was without earthly value: before taking possession of it we had the Gerona Zohar insured by Lloyd's of London for a sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
"Preposterous!" snorted Innes. "Who'd pay that much for a book?"
"There are private collectors the world over who would consider it a priceless addition to their libraries," said Doyle. "Men for whom money is no object and who might be more than willing to commission the theft of such an item."
"Commission the theft? Fiddlesticks; from whom?"
"Well, thieves, naturally." Good Christ, the boy was thick sometimes.
"You have arrived at the root of my fears exactly, Mr. Doyle," said Stern. "As I said, neither my associate nor I— his name is Rupert Selig, by the way; he manages European accounts and works out of our London office—neither of us can point to any direct evidence of someone stalking us. But ever since we arrived in London with the book, we have both