By Nelson DeMille
Do inward journeys manifest themselves into outward
experiences and expressions?
Coined phrase of the book: “If you believe in love, you believe in God”
Coined phrase of the book: “If you believe in love, you believe in God”
Nelson DeMille first wrote this
book in 1975 on the heals of the revolution that took
place in Ethiopia. He calls it an almost biblical civilization
being dragged in to the twentieth century.
Forty years later he collaborated with a fellow editor to add some ‘zip’
to the story. Apparently the prevailing hypothesis
was ‘sex sells books’. This may be true
and I cannot argue that the 21st century version didn't added sexual
tension and drama. The book already had
the adventure and intrigue of a remote third world country. It had the classic suspense that comes with
the mix of international government and holy church. The intrigue between those two bodies
provided plenty back drop and quest related tension to engage the reader. Adding the sexual tension between two guys
and one girl was a new dimension. Was
the ‘zip’ required or did it distract from what appears to me the moral
message? If the theme of the message was
meant to be holy, leaving the reader to value the power of belief, then a mild
yes. Did the sexual tension add to the
story? No it sold books.
Ethiopia
is under siege from a 20th century communist regime and journalists
are fanning the country to capture, no capitalize on a story. A priest, escapes from a burning prison and
ventures in to the jungle to complete his mission from the Vatican. Exhausted he comes across three journalists
whereby he discloses, as best he can, his quest. So call it the Holy Spirit brought on by
divine order as upon the expiration of the priest the quest now becomes the
mission of the journalists. The quest for the Holy Grail.
An old journalist, Mercado, with wisdom and a young
journalist, Purcell, filled with
testosterone, each with journalistic war stories, are now teamed with a fare
skinned dark haired voluptuous beauty from Switzerland, Vivian. She equally satisfies and vexes both of them.
Tension
of the sexes is played out amidst a venture from the jungle, through the Vatican, and back through the jungle of Ethiopia.
Feminine intuition and masculine wisdom find coincidences to be on par with
divine order, but not until the end of the book does the author give this mix a
name. Who gets the girl? Who gets the Cup? To complete the team Gann, British military
expeditionary gets dragged in to the story through circumstance, merely to
provide a sense of rational objectivity.
Besides being somewhat of a nymph, the author uses Vivian to
convey the essences of feminine feeling, as a agent to
understand that pursuit of the Cup requires faith. Her message, in the midst of putting the
detailed plan including historical research and intricate mapping of Ethiopia, that
you must trust your intuition and have faith.
I must say it was not until the very end when DeMille coined
the 'believe it to see it' phrase that the book found its meaning. Until then it was mildly entertaining. With the right director and screen play, this
book would make a great Hollywood movie. A Box Office success. Did Demille’s work
advance mankind? The needle moved a
little forward. Not much. Would I recommend the book? Yes as light entertaining reading with an
educational twist and a convincing argument to believe in Christ, or at least the Christ story. We Americans do not
know much about the very rich history of Ethiopia. On that note, I hope you are teased in to
picking it up.
What would have happened if DeMille
teamed with Dan Brown and together they took on a Victor Hugo style? The reader would have a more colorful
description of Ethiopia. The jungle and the Ethiopian towns would have
jumped off the page. The story would
have drawn much more of the Ethiopian history to the forefront. Christianity would have been woven more
colorfully into the Ethiopian crisis.
That’s not to say that DeMille did not bring
any of this up. But he chose to focus on
superficial aspects of war, church, and sex.
A little cliché.
In my notes below you will find a chronology of the movement
of the Holy Gail. You will also be a
preview of the three-thousand year old Solomonic
dynasty that began with an affair of between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and
ended with the demise of the last Ethiopian Emperor Halie Selassie in 1975.
Bibliography Notes:
Page vi: I was interested in Ethiopia as an ancient, isolated
biblical civilization that was being dragged bloodily into the twentieth
century.
Page 5: Like so many
other imprisoned condemned men and women, like the martyred saints, the thing
that had sustained him through his ordeal was the very thing that had condemned
him in the first place. And what had
condemned him was knowledge of a secret thing.
And the knowledge of the secret thing comforted him and nourished him
and he would gladly have traded forty more years of his life, if he had them to
trade, for one more look at the thing that he had seen. Such was faith. The years in prison saddened him because they
meant that the world had not yet learned of this thing. For if the world knew, then there would be no
more reason for his solitary confinement.
My comment: There
is a lot packed in to the above. First
is a statement on faith. Second there is
a statement on knowing the power of Christ.
And third it is implied that with only him knowing there is meaning for
his martyrdom. This is where man
corrupts the message of Christ.
Page 24: “The
envelope…?” He paused. “Yes. There was
an envelope for each priest. The
cardinal told us we must keep the envelope in out possession always. Never, never must it leave our person…we were
never to mention the envelope to anyone.
Not even to the officers. The
cardinal explained that when a priest dies in the army, all his possessions are given
to another priest. So the envelope would
always be in the hands of those who were sworn…we had to take an oath… sworn
never to open it… but we would know when to open it, he would have difficulty
with the words. My Latin, My Latin was
bad and I remember being ashamed of that.
Latin is not used so much by a country priest. Only in the mass. You understand? But the letter was in Latin, so that if it
was opened by error, it would no doubt be taken to a priest for
translation. The cardinal said that if
we ever came upon the letter in that way, we were to say we had to take the
letter and study it. Then we would make
a false translation on paper and burn the letter.” The priest breathed heavily, and then moaned.
“yes. I must finish it. The envelope… he told us that we were on no
account to open it, unless, when we get to Ethiopia, we should see in the
jungles a black monastery. There was
none like it in all of Ethiopia,
he said. It was the monastery of the old believers… the Coptics. And in this black monastery was a reliquary
and within that reliquary was the relic of a saint. He told us. An important saint. A saint of the time of Jesus, he told us… The
relic of the saint was so important that His Holiness himself wanted very much
to have the relic carried back to Rome where it
belonged, in the true church
of Jesus Christ. In the Church of Saint Peter.”
Page 28: Go to Ethiopia, he
said. There will be a war in Ethiopia
son. And then he warned us – the black
monastery was guarded by monks of the old believers. They had a military order…like the Knights of
Malta, or the Templars. The cardinal did
not know all there was to know of this.
But he knew they would guard this relic with their lives.
Page 29: ‘How will we
know what to look for and what to do when we enter the monastery? And the Cardinal said, “
the words of His Holiness are in the envelope, and if you should ever
arrive at your destination, you will open the envelope and you will know all.”
Page 33: It is a civil war, Father, Ethiopia
now owns the old Italian colony of Eritrea. Some Eritreans, mostly the Muslims, want
independence. They are fighting the Ethiopians.
Inside Ethiopia
itself, there are Christians and Muslims who no longer want the emperor. Mostly it is the army that no longer wants
Halie Selassie as emperor, and they have arrested him, but he is well. He lives in his palace under house arrest. There are some Royalist forces who still fight the army.
There are others who want neither the army nor the emperor. It is a very confused war and there is much
unhappiness in this land. Also, there is
famine. Famine for two
years now.
Page 37: I showed
them the letter with the seal of the Holy Father and I told that the Holy
Father himself had asked me to do this… that within the monastery was a sacred
object of the time of Jesus…
Page 41: two or three
of the Coptic monks spoke some Italian…so I said to them…I said, ‘I have come
to see the sacred relic…’and one who spoke Italian answered, ‘If you have come
to see it, you will see it.’ But he also
said, ‘Those who see it may never speak of it.
‘I agreed to this, though I did not understand that I had sealed my
fate...”
Page 42: He nodded,
then said in aweak voice, “I have seen it…it was very
bright. It was the sun in Berini, I
went home…it was so beautiful…”
Page 43: You must go
to Berini and tell them what happened to Giuseppe Armano. And go also
to the Vatican. Tell them I found the black monastery…and saw
the relic.”
“please tell us what it was,
Father.”
The priest smiled. “of course you want to know what it was. But it has caused so much suffering
already. It is blessed and cursed at the
same time. Cursed, no tof itself, but cursed because of the greed and treachery
of men. It should stay where it is. It is meant to stay hidden until men become
less evil.. The
monks said this to me.”
The priest closed his eyes, then said in a soft voice, “The
Holy Grail… the sacred vessel which Christ himself used at the Last Supper… It
is filled with his most precious blood. It can heal mortal wounds and calm
troubled souls. If you
believe. And the lance that the
Roman soldier, Longinus, used to pierce the side of our Lord…it hangs above the
Grail, and the lance drips a never-ending flow of blood in to the Grail.
Page 53: His
[Mercado, reporter] current assignment for UPI was to do a series on how the
ancient Coptic Church was faring in the civil war.
He felt he had been chosen by God to tell the priests’
story. There was no other explanation
for the stringy of coincidences that had made him privy to this secret.
My comment: Two key points for the average American
reader: 1.) The Coptic Church comes out of hiding. The Coptic Church founds it philosophy and
view of Christ around the gospel of St. Mark.
Second, “coincidence”. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide. Chosen by God is merely another way of saying
this.
Page 54: [metaphor] change like
spaghetti bouncing in a colander
Page 73: He added. “I
developed a fondness for Ethiopia
and the people. A monarchy. The emperor. He’s a remarkable man… the last in a
three-thousand-year-old succession.
My comment: All the talk about China’s
dynasties… and
in the shadows …Ethiopia.
Page 91: and he noted
that Getachu had the broader features of the Hamitic people and not the Semitic features of the
aristocracy of the Arabic population.
My comment: In my criticism of DeMille the above is the
extent of picture building of the differences between two races. Give me Hugo please. Ethiopian features thin build, wide thin
lipped smiles. Arabic features full in
physique round lips frame their smile.
Page 103: I knew that
there was a higher power watching over us.”
“that thought never once crossed my
mind, Henry.”
“ You need to have faith,
Frank. Faith will see us through this.”
Page 105: Faith, said
Henry Mercado. A higher power is
watching over us. There is a reason for
all this. Well, he thought, it better be
a very good reason.
Page 112: “it’s
rather complex. The Falashas
trace their ancestry to the time of Solomon and Sheba, and they are revered by some as a link
to the Solomonic past, as the emperor.”
My comment: DeMille scratches
the surface in describing Solomon and Sheba people. A little more depth on this subject would
have made the book required reading in some schools.
Page 124: “ The Provisional Revolutionary government is interested in
selling precious objects to museums and churches outside the country. The
government is selling most of the emperor’s trinkets now. We need money for food and medicine for the
people. But when a very old regime ends,
some people become upset. Nostalgic. Some
people are fond of kings and emperors and aristocrats on horses – as long as
it’s not in their own country. You
understand? The end of the empire is a
historical necessity. And gold and
jewels are worthless in a modern state.
We need capital.
Page 145: He’d spent his
morning in his room a piece about Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, whom he’d
characterized as a Jew-hater with a pro Nazi past, and not the moderate
peacemaker and reformer that the rest of the news media were making him out to
be.
Page 146: The questions
raised in his story, and in his mind, were: Who owns a two-thousand year old
relic? Obviously, whoever has it owns
it. But how did the present owner get
the object? And does the object, if
priceless, actually belong to the world?
Page 164:
Grail legends. He looked
at the open Bible. “From
Mark 15:42-47.” And now when the
even was come, because it was preparation, this is, the day before the Sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, who also waited for te Kingdom of God, came, and went boldly to Pilate marveled
if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him
weather he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of te centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down,
and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher which was hewn out of
a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher.
Page 165: “And Joseph
of Arimathea believing in Christ, wished to possess
something belonging to him. He therefore
carried off the chalice of the Last Supper…”
And Joseph lay forty years in a hidden dungeon, but was
sustained by the Holy Grail, which was still in his possession.”
Page 166: Vespasian
had himself lowered into the dungeon and freed Joseph. The emperor Vespasian and Joseph of Armathea were then baptized together by Saint Clement.”
Page 166: In Sarras Egypt,
Jpseph was instructed by the Lord to set out a table
in memory of Christ’s Last Supper, and the sacrament of Communion was performed
with the Grail for the new converts.
After a time, Joseph was instructed by the Lord to journey to Britain, and there the Grail was kept in the Grail Castle,
which was located, some say, near Glastonbury. The Grail was kept there by a succession of
Grail Keepers, who were all descendants of Joseph of Arimatha,
and after four hundred years, the last of the Grail keepers of the castle lay
sick and dying.
Page 167: “The
magician Merlin told King Arthur of the presence of the Holy Grail in Britain and bid
him form the Round Table of virtuous Knights to seek out the Holy Grail. The table was formed, with an empty place to
represent Judas, in the tradition of the Last Supper and the table of Joseph of
Arimathea. After many adventures and
dangers during their quest for the Grail, one of Auther’s
knights, Sir Perceval, who was unknowingly a descendant of Joseph of Arimathea,
discovered the Grail Castle and there found the Holy Grail and also the lance
of the Roman soldier, Longinus, that pierced the side of Christ on the Cross. The lance hung suspended in thin air and
dripped blood into the Grail cup.”
The Grail, however, was always associated with the power to
heal.
Sir Perceval was told by the old Grail Keeper of their
kinship, and when the Grail Keeper died, Sir Perceval and Sir Guavain, perceiving that the ttimes
had grown evil, knew that the Grail must again be hidden from sinful men. The Lord came to them and told tem of a ship
anchored nearby the castle, and bid them take the Grail and the Lance back to
the Holy Land.
The two knights set off in a fog and were never seen or heard from
again.
Page 173
I am speculating that the Grail wound up in Alexandria,
or someplace else in Egypt,
and six years later, in 642 Christain Egypt
fell to Islam. I’mfurther
speculating that th Grail, now in the possession of te Coptic priests or monks in Egypt,
was taken by the Nile River to Ethiopia
for safekeeping in Axum.
Page 174: “If we find
the Grail, Henry, we will know it is authentic.
Especially if it has a lance dripping blood into it. And even if it doesn’t, we will know it when
we see it. We will feel it. That much I believe. And that’s what you should believe. SO it
doesn’t matter how it got there, and we don’t have to prove anything to
anyone.” He said “Res ispa loquitur. The thing speaks for itself.
Page 176: ‘an
explorer named Juscelino Alancat,
who had reached Ethiopian emperor’s court at Axum
with expedition forty years earlier.
Father Alverez further states that Alancar had been treated well, but he and his men were put
under house arrest by the Coptic pope for te
remainder of their lives.”
Page 177. But this report also says that the Jesuits
are being expelled again because the Ethiopian emperor and the Coptic pope have
caused them of excessive prying into the affairs of t Coptic Church and for
making inquiries about the monastery of obsidian.” He added, ”This is
the first reference to the black monastery and to the Grail being there.
“Where
it remains.”
Page 216: She
[Vivian] made him understand, “ It’s not the Grail by
itself – it is our faith that heals us.
Page
219: “Now, of course, I,
like most rational men, do not believe any of this…but it is a wonderful story
– it is the story of our unending search for something good and beautiful.
Page
220: Gann smiled and
suggested to his dining companions, “ And while you are looking about for the
Holy Grail, you migh as well try to get a looks at
the Ark of the Covenant.”
“Is that there too?”
Apparently, but not in the Black
Monastery. It’s in the ancient
ruins of Axum.”
Gann explained, “ The Ark of the Covenant is hidden in a
small Coptic chapel in Axum, it is guarded by one monk, a man names Abba who is
called Atang – the Keeper of the Ark,” He further explained, “This is the most solems position in Ethiopian Orthodox Church – the Coptic
Church. Abbas
can nefve leave the grounds of the chapel and he will
hold this position of Atang until he dies.”
“And I’ve spoke to him.”
He added, :He is the only living person who has
ever actually seen the Ark,
but he has never opened this chest to see the stone tablets on which God gave
Moses the Ten Commandments.” Gann
explained, ‘Abba told me that whoever opens the Ark will be struck dead.”
He explained, : as you know the
Queen of Sheba, who ruled in Axum three thousand years ago, went to Jerusalem and was
impregnated by King Solomon. She
returned to Axum and bore a child whom she named Menelik,
and this was the beginning of the Solomonic dynasty
that ruled Ethiopia
until … a few months ago.
My comment: Imagine what Brown and Hugo would have done
with this little tid bid of information.
Page 221: Menelik brought the Ark to
a monastery called Tanna Kirkos
on the eastern shore of Lake Tanna, which feed its
waters into the Blue Nile. The monastery is still there, guarded by
monks, and I have actually been a guest at this monastery.”
Page 225: The Jews
there, the Falasha, see Jesus as a great Jewish prophet,
and they revere him, and presumably they also believe in the Holy Grail – the kiddish cup of Jesus’ last Passover meal.” He asked his companions, “Do you see the
connection?”
Purcell nodded. He
had this feeling, as he’d had in Ethiopia, that he’d fallen through
a rabbit hole, He said to Mercado, “This is aa whol chapter in out book,
Henry, Jews for Jesus.”
Page 230: Mercado
referred to his notes and continued, “ This parchment
[fund in the Ethiopian library in the Vatican]is unsigned, and the author is
unknown, but it was probably written by a church scribe or mionk
and it is of an account of a miraculous healing of a Prince Jacob who was near
death from wounds sustained in battle with the Mohammadans,
as they are called here, who invaded from Egyptian Sudan. According to this account, Prince Jacob was
carried to Axum to die, and was taken to the place
– it doesn’t say which place – where the Holy Vessel was kept.. the Abuna of Axum,
the archbishop, gave this prince last rites, then anointed him with the blood
from the Holy Vessel, and Prince Jacob, because he was faithful to God, and
because he loved Jesus, and also because he fought bravely against the Mohammadans, was healed of his wounds by the sacred blood
of Christ, and he rose up and returned to the battle.”
Page 247: [metaphor] His nose looked like it could have its
own mailing address.
Page 260: Purcell
looked up at the huge stained glass window that diffused the
dying afternoon sunlight throughout the modern and which do credit to a
European cathedral. The work was the
work of a contemporary Ethiopian artist, done in neoprimitive
style, and told the story of the founding Ethiopian royal ine. The first panel showed the black queen, Sheba, visiting Jerusalem with her attendants. The next panel showed them beinfg received by King Solomon. The queen returns to her homeland, and there
she gives birth to a son, Menelik, the ancestor of
the present emperor, who would also ne the last emperor of Ethiopia.
Page
261: Vivian had told Anna that her brother had mentioned her by
name, which made Anna weep. Anna told
them that she had seen her brother in a dream, last year when there was much
news in Ethiopia,
and her brother was smilint, which according to
Sicilian belief meant he was in heaven.
Coincidence? Not according to Vivian or Mercado, who took
this as a further sign of divine design.
Page
267: He understood, too, that they had not necessarily been
chosen to succeed, or even to live. But
they’d been chosen to find the Holy Grail that was within themselves. And that was what this was always about; the
Grail was a phantom and the journey was inward, into their hearts and souls.
Page 306: Mercado
continued, “The Falashas are the only non-convert
Jews in the world who were not part of the Diaspora. They are Ethiopians who have been Jewish
since the time before Sheba. Their ethnic origins are here, not Israel or Judea,
so the Law of Return does not technically apply to them.
Page
362: Miriam said softly, “
This is a difficult tome for everyone.
This civilization – Christian and Jewish – has come to an end. But we look to the future, which will be
better. We must all leave here, but when
we return, we must return as we were, with our customs and traditions, and our
covenants unbroken.
My comment: Diaspora
is now universal among the Jews.
Page 370: Miriam
thanked them, and then painted for them a grim picture of post-revolutionary Ethiopia for
their lead story. “The land is laid
waste by war, and locusts and drought, sent by God> Famine has killed too many to count,
and millions more hang by a thread.
Pestilence is spreading across the land and people have withdrawn into
themselves. Churches are looted and
monks lock themselves in to their monasteries.
All this is punishment by God. For what we have
allowed godless men in Addis to do.
God is testing us, and we must show him that we remain true to him/ Only then will we
be saved by God.
Page 382: Purcell
could not completely understand how people like Henry Mercado, and to some
extent Vivian, persisted in their belief in a benevolent power. But he’d come to see that there was a special
language used to explain simultaneous existence of God and human
depravity. You’d need the right words,
Purcell thought, evolved over thousands of years, to keep your faith from
slipping.
Page 390: [metaphor] being slaughtered
like lambs in a pen
Page 395: As they
walked, Vivian came up beside Purcell and said with a smile, “
That was divine inspiration Frank.
Don’t deny it.”
He smiled in return.
“Ilike to think of myself as a rational
genius.” He added, “But I could be wrong
about his too. “
“You’re not wrong.”
She also said to him, Prepare yourself for a
miracle.”
“And while you’re at it, open your heart to love.”
Page 400: Percell said, “ I have two
observations about Ethiopia. One is that this place has been caught in a
time warp, and the other is that with the emperor gone they are fre falling into the twentieth century, and not ready for a
landing.
Page 406: Givem me your light that I ma tread safely into the
unknown. And he replied, Go out into the
darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than the light and safer
than a known way.
Page 409: Vivian
asked, “ Does anyone but me think that those cats were
sent by God to show us this trail?
Page 411: From the
unknown, through the unknown, to the unknown.
Put your hand in the hand of God.
It will be all right.
Page 415: Every time
they picked up a trail to the west, it turned in another direction, as though
the god of the jungle did not want them heading west into the higher ground and
the great triple canopy jungle
Page 418: Gann
noticed this and said to her, “S we be waiting for
divine inspiration? Vivian replied. “You can’t wait for it. It comes when it comes. “She added, “ You
can pray for it though.”
Page 437: When it is your
time, it was your time. When it wasn’t,
it wasn’t. It was Colonel Ganns’ time, and Miriam’s time. It was not Henry Mercado’s time. Or Vivians’s, or Frank,s. Indeed, they had been chosen.
Page 438: Purcell
replied, “Put your hand into the hand of God, Henry, That’s why we are here.
“We are all in Gods hands now.”
Page 439: In
retrospect, he realized that they had been… maybe mesmerized by Father Armano and his story, and the priest had given them
information, but not knowledge. He had
told them enough to put them on the trail, but not enough to bring them to the
end of it. They had to do that on their
own. And if indeed they were chosen,
then they would be guided on the right path.
Page 444: Purcell thought, that the road that had taken them here was strewn
with betrayals and death – but also with acts of courage and caring.
Page
448: Vivian said to him,
“I was never worried about you. You just
needed to believe in your soul what your heart already knew.”
Page 454: “If you
believe in love, you believe in God”
