Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Writing (01/11/07)
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TITLE: The Pharaoh's Order | Previous Challenge Entry
By Samuel Johnson
01/16/07 -
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Aristeas had been woken in the middle of the night a little over two months ago by the Pharaoh’s guards. He had been brought to the Royal Library and shoved through the doors into the midst of seventy one of his Jewish brethren. They were held in the room as one by one they were led out of the side door into the hallway to be seen no more. When it came to be Aristeas’ turn he left with dignity and his head held high, some of the younger Jews had struggled but they had gone all the same. He was 65 years old now and the resistance had left his character several years before. He had spent his entire life here in Egypt and had spent those years studying the Torah and praying to his God that he would be used in some small way to help his people here in much the same manner as Moses had.
A guard walks ahead of him by a couple of paces and two guards walk alongside of him, one on each side as they walk down the hallway to a set of stairs leading downward. The hallway was a white and gray polished marble, but now as they step down the stairs one by one the stone walls turn to a rough cut stone. The air is cooler and the dim torches attached to the walls flicker in a slight breeze as the cool air rises to meet the heat above.
The guard in the lead opens a door to the right of the hallway and stands aside as the other two guards led the man into a small room and close the door behind him. He hears the bolt slide shut as he looks about the room. A desk stands in the middle of the room with a pitcher of fresh wine, papers, ink, quill, lantern and a paper with the Pharaoh’s seal on it. His hands shake slightly as he picks up the paper and breaks the seal opening it.
“By orders of the Emperor you have been brought here with seventy one of your brethren, six from each tribe, and asked to translate the Jewish Law. You will be cared for and rewarded when the translation is complete.”
As the man continues to do an inventory on the room he sees a copy of the Torah laying upon the small bed attached to the wall. “Thank God”, he murmurs to himself as he picks up the scrolls and takes them to the table sitting down on the stool as he opens the first reading it as he unrolls it.
A couple of more days and he will be finished with the translation. He longs to return to his home and his daily business but the time that he has spent here in the room has been a pleasure to him. He isn’t sure if he wants it to end or not. He has spent every waking minute studying the Law and translating it onto paper. That time was spent talking to God and listening to the small voice that came to him in the silence that surrounded him. And now he was going to have to return to the world outside with all the noise, bright light, people interfering with his studies, etc. He was almost sad to see the days pass by.
Little did the man know that what he and his brethren had written would later become known as the “Septuagint” as he walked up the stairs into the light. It would be the book used by the Apostles and the New Testament writers centuries later, what we Christians today refer to as The Holy Bible, God’s spoken Word.
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Be careful with switching from past to present tense.
Thanks for sharing this look into Biblical history.