The Scroll, by Grant R. Jeffrey and Alton L. Gansky

Biblical archaeology might not strike you as fodder for an adventure novel, but Grant Jeffrey and Alton Gansky make it work in The Scroll.  Taking cues from Indiana Jones and Michael Crichton, these authors send the world's foremost biblical archaeologist, Dr. David Chambers, back to Israel for the dig of his life.  Struggling with his faith, he has decided to branch out into other pursuits, but his old mentor and a pile of money lure him back.  He and his team, including his ex-fiancee, pursue the treasures of the Copper Scroll, including artifacts from the Temple in Jerusalem.

Here's where The Scroll excels, adding fiction to non-fiction for a thoroughly believable story.  The Copper Scroll in question, one of the scrolls found with the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, inventories the locations of vast stores of gold and silver, as well as the Temple items.  The monetary value would be sufficient to inspire a hunt, but we quickly learn that the real agenda is to recover the Temple artifacts and use them in a new, restored temple.  This effort has been the subject of many fictional works since the discovery of the Copper Scroll.

The real scroll.

One major plot element is the discovery of tunnels beneath the old city of Jerusalem.  I particularly enjoyed this due to my own experience there.  In the early 1990s, when I was in Jerusalem with my parents, I took a solo journey through Hezekiah's tunnel, which runs from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam.  According to 2 Kings 20:20, Hezekiah directed the tunnel to be built to bring water into the city.  This tunnel is only a few hundred yards long, but with the curves and utter darkness (I only had a book light to guide me), it felt much longer.  Dr. Chambers's treks through much longer tunnels reminded me of my short walk, and made me thankful there weren't armed men pursuing me.

However, The Scroll is fiction, after all, and gets into plenty of fanciful archaeology, a petty love triangle, and melodramatic action sequences.  I appreciated the setting and history, especially the realistic portrayal of a dig site and the reminder that biblical archaeology constantly affirms the historicity of scripture.  But The Scroll qua novel fell short, feeling a bit amateurish.  Not a great book, but a fun read.


(Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah in exchange for an unbiased review.  Thanks!)