War Scrolls - Paperback

by Jason Gabriel Kondrath (Author)

It has long been believed that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in present-day Iraq, known in the Bible as Mesopotamia. More recently, however, there have been claims of discoveries in the Red Sea region - northwest of Saudi Arabia and south of Iraq.

A friend of my father's, Mannesh (now deceased), was originally from India. His work took him across the Middle East, where he spent a considerable amount of time.

Shortly after returning to the United States, he visited my father and shared something unusual. During an excavation near Aqaba, close to a waterway, his company had reportedly uncovered a burial site containing several well-preserved ancient scrolls.

To be clear, these were not the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 further north. Mannesh did not specify how many of these "Red Sea" scrolls were found, nor did he possess the originals. However, he had taken photographs and arranged for the language - one he did not recognize - to be translated while he was still overseas.

I knew Mannesh well. He and his wife had even babysat my siblings and me when we were children. He was not prone to exaggeration, nor the type to perpetrate an elaborate hoax. In fact, he was not a storyteller at all.

He referred to what he had seen as the "Scrolls of Creation."

I happened to overhear the conversation one afternoon after school. After listening for a short time, I asked if I could take notes. He nodded politely and continued speaking.

According to Mannesh, these scrolls were written by Adam and Eve after their exile from the Garden of Eden.

Until recently, I had not revisited those notes - taken nearly thirty-five years ago.

Fantastic coincidence?

Hardly.

At fifteen years old, the story meant little to me beyond its intrigue. After a few hours, we had dinner. Mannesh said his goodbyes, and I never saw him again.

Years passed. My parents divorced. My father eventually died.

After his passing, my mother began sorting through belongings they had accumulated during their marriage. One day, she called me to say she had found several small wire-bound notebooks - the kind they barely make anymore.

She wasn't sure whether they belonged to me or my brother; the covers had faded with time. She didn't want to discard them without asking.

My mother is elderly now - sometimes forgetful, sometimes sentimental - so I agreed to look through them.

That was when I found the notes.

What had once seemed like scribbles in a teenager's notebook had become something else entirely. Something significant.

As an adult, having chosen writing as a second career, I returned to those pages with different eyes. I have been working on this book, on and off, for many years.

Based on those notes, I chose to call this novel War Scrolls, as they concern the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Lucifer.