“Are those Jewish names?”
“Simon and Giora are. In fact there was a very famous Simon son of Giora at the time of the Judean uprising 66 CE.”
Daniel froze suddenly, as he realized how close that date was to the date of this document.
“What about the others?”
“They don’t sound Jewish. Heck they don’t sound anything in particular. Assuming I’m pronouncing them properly.”
“What because of the vowels you mean?”
Aramaic, like Hebrew and Arabic, was written in an Abjad — a consonant alphabet with no vowels.”
“No vowels?”
“I mean no written vowels. Obviously they sounded out the vowels when they spoke. But the vowels were never transcribed in the written form. That came with later developments in written language. In an Abjad, The vowels are implied by the context and the rules of grammar. To those familiar with the language, this is no problem.”
“Which you are.”
“Which I am. But when it comes to names, it can be problematical, especially if they’re old names or foreign names and uncommon ones at that.
“Maybe we can get some advice from Professor Hynds.”
Daniel looked pleased at this.
“But we’ll have to be careful,” she added.
“Okay let’s get on with this. ‘and I will work for thee, honour, provide for, and support thee, in accordance with the practice of Jewish husbands, who work for their wives, honour, provide for and support them in truth.’ He looked up at Sarit, who was still standing there expectantly.
“So what is it?”
“It’s a standard ketuba — a Jewish marriage agreement in which the groom asks the woman to become his wife and undertakes to support her and provide for her.”
“So it’s like a contract?”
“Sort of. It’s written in the third person from the point of view of the witnesses, whose names are… Barach and Aristobulos. They’re essentially attesting to the fact that this is what the man said to the woman. And after that, the document is given to the wife as her protection.”
“But why would there be a Jewish marriage certificate at a Romano-British site?”
“That’s just one of the big-mysteries, Sarit.”
Chapter 43
The incident room was a hive of activity when the report came through. The young WPC saw it on her computer and realized instantly what it was. With a click of the mouse, she sent it to the printer. And then got up from her desk and walked a few feet to retrieve it. There were maybe half a dozen computers in the room. But they all shared one laser printer.
She scooped it up from the printer’s Out tray and carried it over to the corner of the room where DCI Vincent was working.
“Sir we’ve got a trace on that call to Julia Sasson’s phone.”
The WPC handed the printout to the Chief Inspector.
“Great!” said the DCI, bristling with enthusiasm. “Let’s pay our friend Daniel Klein a visit.”
The WPC squirmed with embarrassment.
“I didn’t explain very well Sir. It’s not actually the full address.”
Vincent looked up, irritably.
“What do you mean?”
“The phone doesn’t have GPS. They could only trace it by the ground stations. They’ve go an approximate address but not an exact one.”
Vincent looked at the printout annoyed. It showed the area and explained the degree of accuracy. That meant they would have to search several streets.
Chapter 44
“So who was this Simon, son of Giora — the famous one I mean?”
“They were sitting down drinking coffee. Daniel had decided that he needed a break from translating of the Aramaic marriage document, and Sarit took the chance to flesh out her knowledge of ancient Jewish history, continuing the odyssey that had began when she was caught in a suicide bomb explosion by a Palestinian terrorist and continued when she served in Sar-El and the Israel army, before being recruited into the Mossad and trained as a Kidon — a deadly assassin.
“Simon Bar Giora was one of the rival leaders of the Jewish uprising against the Roman’s that began in the year sixty six.”
“What do you mean rival leaders?”
“You have to understand, Sarit, that the Jewish struggle for freedom from Rome — just like the struggle of the ancient Britons — was riven by factionalism and rivalry.”
“Sort of like the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea?”
She had said it with a cheeky grin on her face — a look that softened her and briefly replaced the hard, tough killing machine that he knew her to be with the giggly schoolgirl that she could have passed as, if such camouflage had been necessary. But Daniel simply nodded approvingly, confirming that there was more than an element of truth to her flippant rejoinder.
“Not much is known about his early life. The name Giora can mean a stranger or convert. It may not be his father’s name at all. Anyway he first became known round about the year 66 when he was a young soldier who fought against the Romans in what Josephus called the ‘Jewish war.’ It was actually the first full-scale war between the Jews and the Romans.”
Joseph ben Matityahu — as he was originally known — was a Jew who changed sides when he saw the writing on the wall. In the early stages of the Jewish rebellion against Rome, he had been trapped in a siege in the town of Yodfat, which fell to the Romans despite allegedly being defended by thousands of Jews. Josephus, according to his own account, suggested that they salvage their honour by committing mass suicide. But suicide was forbidden in Jewish law and so they drew lots and killed each other, leaving one last man… who just happened to be Josephus. He was taken prisoner, used by the Romans as an interpreter and ultimately came over to the roman side fully and given citizenship and a role as an official historian.
“And the second was the one with Bar Kochba,” said Sarit, determined to show that she was not completely ignorant of these matters.
“Technically that was the third. But anyway, from what little we know about Bar Giora, he was probably quite young at the time, but he proved himself to be a resourceful strategist and military commander. He attacked their flanks and concentrated his forces on capturing their beasts of burden. A bit like capturing undamaged enemy tanks these days and then using them against the other side.”
“Sounds like Arik Sharon,” said Sarit with another cheeky grin.
General Arik Sharon was a famous — if somewhat controversial — Israeli military commander who had distinguished himself in numerous battles, including turning the tide of the Yom Kippur War, which Israel was losing, by crossing the Suez Canal and cutting off the Egyptian Third Army, whilst threatening also to cut off their Second Army.
“That’s actually quite a good comparison,” said Daniel. “Anyway. The point is that despite Simon Bar Giora’s military prowess, the leaders of the Judean uprising were reluctant to promote him to a senior position. This was partly due to the fact that they were afraid of him, both because of his powers and his popularity, but also possibly because of his parentage. If he was the son of a convert, they may have been more sceptical of him.”
“I guess amongst some people in Israel, I’ll never be accepted.”
Daniel heard the pain in her voice and although he couldn’t really speak for others, he wanted to reassure her.
“As an Israeli, I’m sure you’ll be accepted.”
“But I didn’t even consider converting to Judaism. I’m still a Roman Catholic at heart, whatever my politics.”
“Yes, but you served in the Israel army. And to secular Israelis, that’s the important thing. Anyway there was another factor at work in the case of Bar Giora. The priestly authorities at the Temple were realistic enough to know that they could never defeat the Romans outright and they wanted to negotiate with them. Bar Giora didn’t give the impression that he was a man who wanted to negotiate.”