...Especially the Parchments

Doctor Oscar Sample, Professor of Early Christianity, a former NFL player, is confronted with this conundrum when a young priest arrives one evening at his office. At first, Sample scoffs at the first couple of pages, thinking that they were either purloined or fake. After closer examination, he realizes that the pages contain three languages - Greek, Medieval Latin and perhaps a version of Hebrew or Aramaic. Sample gets the priest to explain that he’d uncovered the cache at the Archbishopric in New Orleans. Sample has a photographer, a gridiron nemesis, to carefully photograph each page. He asks his graduate student to examine the copies. They appear truly ancient, perhaps first century CE.


Sample recruits a well-known Jewish scholar, an expert in paper technologies and an expert in written antiquities to decide whether the documents are real. If so, what do the messages reveal?. The parchment and the inks are eighth century Celtic. The group concludes that they are probably practice pages done by monastery scribes. As the translations evolve the group discusses the source of these documents and their authorship and meaning. Are these the writings of religious members at the beginning of Christianity? Before the group can decide how to disseminate the information, one by one the members die under unusual circumstances.