Jon chuckled. “No, Heinz, we just can’t have you on our hands that long! Now, patient colleagues, I’m passing out my preliminary translation of Second Acts. I finally completed that task-and it was a task!-yesterday. Please know that it’s not an authoritative translation, just a possible first draft. Now, if you’ll permit, I think we should take a break so you can all read it. I think you’ll… well, I think you’ll be entranced.”
When they had finished the reading and refilled their coffee cups, all wanted to know: “Where’s the final scene? Or did Luke break off just before Paul’s execution-and leave us hanging again?”
“No, he provided it all,” Jon replied. “I merely wanted the opportunity to read it aloud to you first. It’s very, very… moving.” He picked up his script and read: When word came that Paul was to be executed, Timothy, Mark, and I, as well as elders of the church at Rome, accompanied Paul on his final journey from the Castra Praetoria, where he had been imprisoned, to the Ostian Gate at the south of Rome. He wore a purple cloak that Lydia had made for him. We passed through the gate and walked a Sabbath day’s journey down the Ostian Way to avoid the curious. Finally we came to a green, open spot called the Waters of Sage, which the centurion approved. Paul now took leave of us all and commended the church to God. He said, “This is only the beginning of a cause that will one day become far greater than the Roman Empire. The Caesars will perish, but Christ will triumph, my beloved, and you will all be his ambassadors in building the greatest structure this world has ever seen: the holy Christian church. And we will all see each other again in the paradise that he has prepared for us. So do not weep for me, but comfort one another with these words.” When the centurion said that all was ready, Paul said, “The time of my departure has come, my beloved friends. As I once wrote you, Timothy, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And now the prize is waiting for me-the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the perfect Judge, will award to me on that great day. And not to me only, but to you as well-and all who await his coming. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Then he fell to his knees, bared his neck, and bowed his head in prayer, saying, “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” The centurion raised his sword with both hands and brought it down in one strong sweep. In our anguish, we buried this greatest apostle in a sepulchre nearby that was provided by one of the elders of the church. On his breast we placed a small cross of wood, the emblem of what has become the center of everything he preached and taught. Then we returned to Rome, grieving and yet thanking and praising God for having given us so great a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Thanks be to God.
Jon’s voice broke toward the end, and he found it difficult to regain his composure. Finally he cleared his throat and said, “That’s it, my colleagues. Now I’ll pass out these final two pages of my translation. Please add it to the others.”
A sacred silence hovered over the conference tables, not one voice daring to break the mood of profound awe. All had returned to Cambridge at Jon’s request, expecting that they would, no doubt, be privy to some fascinating discovery, but Jon knew that the codex and its surprises were vastly more than they could ever have anticipated. It was almost as if their minds were now out of breath, so to speak, and needed some downtime.
It was the chair’s responsibility to bring the conclave back to life. Again Jon cleared his throat. “Now, perhaps, it’s time to… to get a few reactions from the group? Comments of any kind?”
That opened the floodgates. Torrents of response poured out across the room like a deluge-swollen waterfall, and Jon was hard-pressed to keep those with hands raised in numerical order for recognition. Many of the comments were variations on the theme of how much the new material sounded like the rest of what Luke wrote in his Gospel and the book of Acts, citing example after example.
“Not to pat ourselves on the back,” Mac MacAdam said, “but the way many of us had theoretically reconstructed what happened to Paul after Acts breaks off turned out to be pretty close to the mark. It’s exciting to see hypothesis turn into fact-well, once again, with that nagging proviso: authenticity.”
“And on that subject,” Jon responded, “I have not the slightest doubt whatever that our codex is authentic. Who, in the name of God-given common sense, could have faked page after page after page of this codex in fourth-century Greek uncials? The answer, of course, is no one, no one at all. Still, because the masses out there would be howling otherwise, we plan to test the codex as much as if we suspected that it was a crude fraud.”
“What sort of tests?” Ed Yamauchi wondered.
“Two kinds: linguistic and material tests. Clearly, the Mark 16 Blue-Ribbon Task Force is our exemplar here, and the same procedures will apply also to Second Acts, which, obviously, will take much longer to implement in view of the larger amount of material.”
Brendan Rutledge raised his pen. “Why, then, don’t we change the name of the Mark 16 group to… say… the Constantine Codex Task Force, in view of its added responsibilities?”
Much affirmative nodding followed. “I like it, Brendan,” Jon said. “What about the ‘Blue Ribbon’ part of it?”
“ Forget the Blue Ribbon!” von Schwendener bellowed. “Who ever attached that stupid phrase to task forces in the first place? It was good only for Pabst beer!”
General laughter erupted, a welcome release.
Dan Wallace raised a sober warning. “You realize, of course, that it’ll be next to impossible to keep a secret of this colossal size under wraps for very long, don’t you, Jon? It would take God’s own miracle to keep the news from spilling out over the months it’ll take to do a full commentary.”
“Right! I guess that’s part of the package: the greater the discovery, the less the chances of keeping it secret. And yet, somehow we must. We’ve got to hold the news or our work will be constantly interrupted by the media. Any bright ideas?”
Shannon volunteered. “Why don’t we suspend the commentary part of it? Commentaries on the Mark material and Second Acts will be written for years to come in any case. If we wait until we also produce any sort of ‘official commentary,’ it could take years and years-like the notorious delay in getting all the Dead Sea Scrolls edited and translated. Over that long a period, confidentiality would be outright impossible. So I propose that on the day we go public with this, we provide only the Greek text, as well as an official English translation that will have just a few commentary footnotes on each page, very much like our present-day study Bibles.”
The conference mulled it over. Finally Sally Humiston said, “That’s good, Shannon, really good! I’m all for it. I really think that’s the way we ought to go.”
Shouts of “Hear, hear!” rattled across the room, and it was so decided.
“Now you see why I married this wonder woman,” Jon said gallantly-and honestly. He bent over and gave her a big hug.
“Not here, Jon,” she whispered in embarrassment.
“On another matter,” he resumed, “I wonder if those whom we haven’t shanghaied for the Constantine Codex Task Force might be willing to serve on another committee with an almost equally crucial function. Its charge will be to ponder two very simple questions, but their recommendations might really shake this planet. Here, I think, are the two questions: One, should the ICO suggest that the New Testament canon be opened to include not only the true ending of Mark’s Gospel, but also the second book of Acts? And two, if so, how can this best be achieved?”
There were many indrawn breaths, yet no one volunteered a word.
“Good,” Jon said. “Any attempt at an answer would be utter folly at this point. After I pass out copies of the Greek text of Second Acts, will those not on the Constantine Codex Task Force be kind enough to serve on the second committee?” He looked around the room and saw more than enough hands raised to form that committee as well.