The Silent Apostle

By Andrew David Dolye

Kemp Hastings a freelance troubleshooter for the Fisher Kings is tasked with authenticating an illuminated manuscript that has strong
links to the crucufixion and may have been penned by Mary Magdalene herself.

Hastings teams up with Dr Darlene Gammay a biblical studies teacher and embark on an adventure that results in an event that rocks the Papacy.

In her efforts to research the parchment Darlene inadvertantly makes contact with the Sanctos Epistula (Letters of the Saints) and is burdened with a tattoo across her back and left shoulder that may reflect the true likeness of the Holiest of Mothers. The tattoo reflects the work of Gabriel Dante Rosetti's famous pre- raphaelite work from the late 18th century indicating that the artist may have had access to a more secret society.

On discovering the tattoo Hastings finds that the manuscript that was hidden in his desk has returned to a simple blank parchment page of two thousand years ago

In the interim period - a known Hellfire Corss Sword has been mysteriously removed from the secure archives of the vatican and the Pope has concerns over the safety of his flock.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462024469

Andrew David Dolye

The Lost Monks of Avalon 'The Silent Apostle' Hammersmith to Wordsmith Scottish author, Andrew David Doyle a generic Dundonian started his working life in the Robb Caledon shipyard at the tender age of 16, in 1977, entering the ship building industry as a new apprentice plater. He spent 12 months learning the trade and departed in 1978 to join the ranks of the British Army, where he spent a further 14 years of his career, where The Lost Monks of Avalon & The Silent Apostle were conceived and placed on paper with other work remaining dormant for almost 25 years. After moving into the Offshore environment Andrew, began putting pen to paper to satisfy a hidden passion for eloquent storytelling and turned to digital media to capture his writing art. 25 years on, and Andrew finally releases his first novel to the unsuspecting literal world at large. If one takes time to visit the authors promotional website, it soon becomes clear, even to the untrained eye that, the amount of research and study applied to this fictional work has not been slight, and often overwhelming. admits the author in one of our many discussions. Andrew has blended a unique blend of folklore, mythology and fantasy rolled into a fine tapestry of a fine well written and balanced novel. Scotland, features mostly in the opening chapters of the work coupled with a brief Scottish history as the Bible was being unleashed into medieval Scotland. Mr Doyle has managed to integrate a broad spectrum of subject matter within the modest 406 pages and has introduced christianity and science fiction into a well balanced and strategically thought out premise. The authors web page www.orbisavalon.com is littered with many articles and copious feedback articles from both published and unpublished authors, located under each of the projects tab names. Recently the author was surprised to be told that his art, reflected a likeness towards the authors personal style of writing as one would attribute to other authors, such as Douglas Adams or P.K. Dick or other fictional writers. The spread of the work has been very carefully threaded together to both portray science fiction and portions of biblical subject matter in a non confrontational mix. The author, has completed several other novels, two of which are currently, awaiting publishing, the aforementioned book: The Lost Monks of Avalon, however, is witty, and filled with irreverant fact cunningly woven together as an interesting page turner and Mr Doyle introduces Death - Grim Reaper, in a most wittingly fashion. Andrew resides within the district of Angus, and writes chiefly about the locality of Dundee and middle Scotland within all of his projects. In summary the author presents a welcome breath of fresh air towards a dry and often complicated subject , but delivered by this author on a silver platter.

Book preview

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter One

‘Mathew, Mark, Luke and John,’ cried Doctor Darlene Gammay with succinct authority, laying down the foundations and setting the tone of her presentation. A group of biblical scholars from the University of somewhere or other looked back at her politely. ‘These are the names of four of our most famous biblical characters, or Apostles, of the Bible. They are all well documented as being the followers of Christ, and may have interfaced with him or many of the other historical figures in biblical times…

Although we are generally told that there were twelve Apostles in total, we can deduce from various writings that they all appeared at different times through Jesus’ life, and appeared to have had an equal standing in the hierarchy of biblical writing. But in fact, as we work through this lesson, we will find that the Apostles did in fact fall into a specific ranking structure and may have varied in their numbers at specific gatherings or meetings.

It is widely accepted that the Apostles were not all scholars, but key figures in their particular societies. Perhaps they were the ones who could read and write and therefore chose to write about the many exploits of this one man, eventually sending many stories throughout the Holy Land of some rather remarkable goings on, and thus, documented most of what we know about the life of Jesus from Nazareth. And indeed over time these writings do not let us forget his existence, nor his death; these writings by the Apostles collectively ensure an archive of amazing detail. The many writings and texts are delivered with such a passion that we simply cannot dismiss or ignore, especially today as it is corroborated in so many academic ways.’

A single hand went up in the audience and the tutor acknowledged: ‘Yes, you, the lady in the middle, with the shawl.’ A clear decisive pointing of her pointy finger spotlighted the mantle-clad maiden. It was one of those exaggerated movements of the finger that university tutors learn as a mandatory requirement for responding to being asked questions out of turn: the distinctive body language frozen in the given direction must have been taught on the curriculum for tutorials as part of the secret school of arrogance and ignorance.

The middle aged woman stood up and asked a question about Saint Matthew. ‘Doctor Gammay, how do you interpret how Matthew actually knew about the existence of the three wise men and how would he know that they were en route to Bethlehem from the East, do you suppose that he may have received written word in advance from other prophets or was he informed by a messenger?’

The Doctor stood for a few seconds and pondered the question. ‘Good question,’ she said. ‘It is easy to say that in this case, John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness well in advance of these events, and any follower could have made their way across the desert and met with Matthew, or may have passed messages along the many carnival or camel routes along the winding roads to Damascus and indeed, Bethlehem. I would say however, that we should aim this question at John, he was perhaps more likely to be informed than Matthew, although they may have been very close to one another in the first place. And then again, if we take the Bible in full context, we would discover that there are other prophets networking with one another and laying the many seeds of history.

To answer your question we can turn to yet another documented prophet mentioned in the Bible, one named Esais, who is clearly documented by Matthew as discussing repentance in one of his many sermons. He would have perhaps been an implantation within the crowd to support any message being delivered, a person who would travel ahead to the next place of preaching and start to gee the crowds with idle gossip, but we should always err on the safe side in academia and work to the facts.

I must say it would be difficult to clearly define if these words were spoken or written in advance or after many events, and therefore, from a scholarly standpoint, we must assume that all events are recorded thereafter. But I do take your point as to the origins of such information, we must work to the ethos that archival evidence will never ever be fully corroborated or brought to modern day thinking as decisive, or will ever be declared the ultimate overarching body of evidence to substantiate such a claim.

I mean, could you imagine resurrecting any of the Apostles today, and asking them what they thought of today’s real world, asking them for their opinions as they view modern society through the eyes of a layman? Ask yourself this: what would they really see? Global war, famine, floods, corruption, genocide, racial abuse, hatred… All the 21st century favourites, and we haven’t even touched on WMDs—Weapons of Mass Destruction—yet, our pending Nemesis, our demise, and most definitely our Armageddon. I am sure they would record our world as a literal living hell.

A hell with so much uncertainty going on that we do not know where we will be in five or ten years’ time. As an example, imagine if you will the following circumstances: let us say that during an archaeological dig in the distant future, the 29th century for example, a researcher discovers a single book that was completely unknown to the finder. This book was hidden away from prying eyes for whatever reason, the subject matter was the demise of the earth, and the work was preserved in a bone-encased casket with a few modern day items such as an empty bottle of Coke and a packet of cheese and onion crisps.

Now how would the archaeologists research its contents, how could the team research the author or even the author’s origins, how could you establish any credible evidence to say that this person did in fact write this work? How would you decipher the language if it was written in a foreign language, how would you test the inks or bloods for authenticity or age? These are just some of the questions we must ask before we commit ourselves to ascertaining the authenticity of documents or indeed any artefacts. To add a little bit of mystery, let’s say it was written in the calligraphy of the 3rd century Aramaic language. But do we know that cheese and onion crisps were on the market then?

How would the scholars interpret what conditions of the times were actually like, six or seven hundred years ago, what was society suffering as this book was being hidden in an attempt to tell the world of the future what was really afoot?

We can look at the internet or review newspapers today to see what is happening globally, but back in the days of Christ it would be very difficult to decipher fact from fiction or find the resources to corroborate your findings, a real dilemma we face today. We have military records, we even have Templar records and at a push we could ask the Vatican to release some documents, but how would you get to the nitty-gritty detail?

This is why the work of the Apostles is so important; it’s not just the life of Jesus that is documented but a whole way of existence and belief, which was captured by so many. So, yes, an excellent question to ask, thank you, my apologies for drifting away from the main question, still, all this is relevant to our session.’ Doctor Gammay stopped for a few seconds and stared out the window, her mind momentarily wandering.

She collected herself, and began again. ‘We must bear in mind that not all the Apostles were men of education either. It is imperative that we remember that fifty percent of the Apostles were, in fact, normal, everyday fishermen who worked to support their families day in and day out. And we may even have an element of artistic licence creeping in from certain angles, where, maybe not all the true facts have been recorded.

Who is to say that John may have disliked Mary Magdalene and discredited