“Okay, I’m sure you already know most of this, Dr. Pierce, but I’ll start from the beginning. This is from the second book of Maccabees, chapter two. ‘The prophet, in virtue of an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should accompany him. He went to the very mountain that Moses climbed to behold God’s inheritance. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the Ark, and the altar of incense; then he sealed the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: ‘The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will be seen, just as they appeared in the time of Moses and of Solomon when he prayed that the place might be greatly sanctified. It is also related how Solomon in his wisdom offered a sacrifice for the dedication and the completion of the temple.”’
“The mention of Solomon is significant,” Pierce said, as an aside to Fiona. “Solomon built the Temple as a permanent place to house the Ark, and as a reward, he was blessed with divine wisdom.”
“Wisdom,” Fiona said. “And Nabu, a.k.a. Nebo, is the Babylonian god of wisdom.”
“More proof that we’re in the right place,” Pierce said. “But we need to narrow it down.”
“I’m getting to that,” Dourado said, the words almost running together like the buzz of a bee’s wings. “The chapter begins by referencing another document. This whole account is a synopsis of that other document, but it doesn’t specify the actual source. However, there is a similar account in The Apocalypse of Baruch the Son of Neriah, so that’s probably what they were talking about.
“Baruch has a vision in which he sees an angel go into the Holy of Holies to gather up the Ark and all the treasures of the Tabernacle, after he commands the Earth to hide the treasures, so that strangers — the Babylonians — would not be able to take them. After the vision, Baruch is sent to find Jeremiah. He tells him everything he saw and then they spend seven days together fasting.”
“Baruch was giving Jeremiah his marching orders,” Pierce said.
“He doesn’t explicitly say where Jeremiah was to hide the Ark, but he does say this later on: ‘You priests take you the keys of the sanctuary, and cast them into the height of heaven, and give them to the Lord.’”
“How does that help?” Fiona asked.
“The keys were symbolic of the authority to enter the Temple,” Pierce explained. “There weren’t actual locks on the doors. Casting them into the heavens would be sort of like giving the keys to your apartment back to the landlord when you move out. And remember, Jeremiah was a Kohen. He had God’s permission to enter the Temple.”
“There’s more to it,” Dourado said. “He was being given direction and distance to the place where the Ark was supposed to be hidden.”
“I don’t understand,” Fiona said.
“I’m not sure I do either,” Pierce admitted. “Explain.”
“This is from later in the chapter: ‘And do thou, O sun withhold the light of your rays. And do thou, O moon, extinguish the multitude of your light. For why should light rise again. Where the light of Zion is darkened?’”
“That sounds like a solar event,” Fiona said.
“I know, right?” Dourado agreed. “But it also signifies direction. Sunrise. Due east. Mount Nebo is due east of Jerusalem. This is backed up in the Book of Ezekiel. Chapter eleven makes repeated references to the east gate of the city, and the glory of God—”
“Shekinah,” Gallo murmured.
“—leaving the city and going to stand on a mountain to the east of the city. And what mountain is east of Jerusalem?
“The placement of the Temple in Jerusalem was not random. Everything had symbolic importance. So when Jeremiah throws the keys from the door of the sanctuary, it’s symbolizing that he should travel due east, toward the spot where the sun would appear to rise over Mount Nebo on the day of the vernal equinox, a heading of ninety degrees, adjusting for changes due to precession.”
“Interesting,” Pierce said. “You said direction and distance?”
“Everything about the Temple was precisely measured, and those measurements reflect a very precise mathematical code. The same would be true of the place where the Ark was to be stored until the return. When he talks about throwing the keys to the ‘heights of the heavens,’ it’s not just a metaphor. It indicates a specific measurement, based on the height of the Temple itself. Forty cubits.”
“Forty cubits,” Pierce repeated. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“That same number appears in the Copper Scroll found with the Dead Sea scrolls. In part, it reads: ‘In the ruin that is in the valley of Acor, under the steps, with the entrance at the East, a distance of forty cubits, a strongbox of silver and its vessels with a weight of seventeen talents.’”
“Where’s Acor?” Fiona asked.
Pierce pointed to the west. “It’s supposed to be that way, near the site of Jericho, but nobody’s sure. No one has ever found a treasure matching that description.”
“A Greek talent was believed to be roughly a hundred pounds,” Gallo added. “So seventeen talents would indicate a considerable amount of precious metal, far too much for a single strongbox, I would think. The mention of vessels could refer to the sacred vessels of the Temple.”
“It might not have anything to do with the Ark,” Pierce said, “but the reference to forty cubits is interesting.”
“A cubit was about eighteen inches,” Gallo supplied. “The distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.”
“Actually, it was a variable measurement,” Pierce said. “Anywhere from sixteen to twenty-five inches depending on who you ask.”
“Exactly,” Dourado said. “But the cubit used for measuring the Temple — the Sacred cubit — was 25.20 inches. The same unit of measurement was used for building the Great Pyramid, which is why they are sometimes called Pyramid cubits. That number, 25.20 is important. It’s one percent of 2,520, which is the product of 7 and 360.”
“Seven is the number of God and there are 360 days in the lunar calendar,” Gallo said, as if speaking to herself.
“And 360 degrees in a circle. It’s a recurring numerical value in the Old Testament.”
Pierce shook his head. “It’s a coincidence. Numerologists are always finding patterns that aren’t there. Our system of measurement is an arbitrary value established just a few hundred years ago.”
“That’s not completely true, George,” Gallo countered. “Yes, statute measurements were established by Queen Elizabeth, but they were based on earlier systems of measurement.”
“But still arbitrary.”
“Not necessarily. In the year 240 BC, the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth by comparing the difference in the length of the shadows cast in two different cities at exactly the same time. He calculated the circumference of the Earth to within 1 %. He was able to make that calculation because he knew that a circle could be evenly divided into 360 degrees, each degree measuring 700 stadia.”
“That’s 252,000,” Fiona said. “There’s that number again.”
Gallo nodded. “The error in measurement was due only to the fact that the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere, something he couldn’t have known. His method was valid and based on known universal constants. Christopher Columbus used his calculations to plot his circumnavigation, and the only reason he stumbled across America is because he didn’t know which version of the stadia Eratosthenes had used. Like I told you earlier, the ancients were much more sophisticated than we give them credit for. The statute measurement system was based on an older system, so it’s not unreasonable to think that the statute inch was derived from the Sacred cubit, instead of the other way around.”