The Hiram Key

J he Hiram Key
Jesus elmst: Man, voa, MYIIl or rreemOSQnf
consider why it went out of use. Jesus himself had been given the title in
Matthew 2:23:
'And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth; thaI it might be
fulfilled which was said by lhe prophets: ThaI he sholl be called a
Nazarene. '
This seemed to be an indicator that the Gospel of Matthew was written
by someone well removed from the true Church. or. more likely, that it
was added at a later date by someone who wanted to tidy up some
~ tractiv e oose ends. It struck us as a painful contonion of logic to say
that Jesus was duty-bound to go and live in a particular place because
some long-gone soothsayer had said that he would. What's more. a
--Inajor flaw in the New Testament claim that people called their saviour
..·Jesus of Nazareth' is the evidence that the town of Nazareth simply did
- not exist at the time of Jesus! There are no historical records referring to
the town that predate the mentions in the Gospels, which is a unique
situation as the Romans kept excellent records throughout their empire.
The term actually used was 'Jesus the Nasorean' because he was a senior
member of a movement that bore that name. The New Testament places
Jesus's early activities around the Sea ofGaJilee and his supposed move
to Caphamaum, described in Matthew 4:13, was merely a necessary
correction to bring history back into line. II
We were struck by the phrasing here: ·t implies that Jesus was a
member of the Nasorean sect, which strongly suggests that he was not
ecessarily its original leade;.}t seems tliarJesus might not have been
the founder of the Church at all.
The Nasoreans were clearly going to be very significant in the story
that was starting to unfold in front of us. And then an imponant clue
came from a totally unexpected source. Whilst visiting the Sinai, Chris. a
keen scuba diver, took the opportunity to dive on the coral reefs of the
Red Sea, which he knew from previous experience were the finest in the
world.
The underwater visibility around Shann el Sheik in Egypt is normally
excellent but on one particular day it dropped dramatically due to the
annual spore bloom from the coral. This turned the water hazy and in
places the visibility dropped to a couple of yards. Chris takes up the
story:
II Peate's ~ntol)' on lhe Bibk
72
/
'I was aware that was not all bad news as lhe plankton brought in such
wonderful creatures as manta rays, seeking to feast on the suddenly
plentiful food. It was about ten in the morning when 1 jumped off the
extremely hot deck of the all-steel Apuhara (an Egyptian vessel that had
started life as a Swedish icebrealcer) and dropped a hundred feet to the
multicoloured sea bed.
'J headed towards the headland, ri sing slowly as the water became
increasingly shallow to give me a safe dive profile for nitrogen
decompression. At about thiny feet 1 entered a large cloud of zooplankton
and completely lost sight of my dive buddy, so 1 backed out
towards the clearer area. No sooner had I got my vision restored than I
realised that a giant manta ray was heading straight at me, mouth wide
open as it scooped in tons of water to filler out its morning meal. It
stopped just a dozen or so feet in front of me and hovered motionless like
an alien flying saucer. This fish was over twenty feet wide, and as my
head twisted from left to right to take in the splendour of this magnificent
creature I was filled with awe and excitement. Suddenly, without any
discernible movement of its wings, it broke away to my left and then I
saw two smaller mantas sweeping in behind it to take advantage of the
food·carrying current off the headland.
'Thi s rated as one of my best dive!\ ever and as soon as I was back on
board I asked Ehab, the friendly and usually knowledgeable Arab guide.
for the name of the location and he told me it was called Ras Nasrani.
Conversationally I asked him what the word meant, and was told that Ras
translated simply to "head" or "point" and "Nasrani" was a word for lois
of little fish. I pressed funher and asked what type offish and he replied,
"Just ordinary little fish. when there is lots of them together".
'A few days later. at the monastery of St Catherine. 1 heard an Arab
describe Christians with precisely the same worg, "nasrani" and when I
checked, it was confirmed that this is the normal Arabic word for the
followers of the major prophet called Jesu ~. '
The lileral meaning immediately sprang back into mind and suddenly
made a lot of sense. Could this be the very simple meaning of the term ­
that is, in the earliest times, Christians were 'the little fishes'?
This could be based on tbeJisher of men' imagery that the Church
attributes to Christ; more likely it is based on"'the ancient association of
the ~d the fish ~ The me;;bers of the Essene sect were all priest·
like in their devotions and obedience of the la.w and they bathed in water
at every opportunity. which also would have given good reason to uselhe
term. This theory fits the fact that members of the Nasorean sect went
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