In Dan Brown’s newest thriller, “Angels & Demons”, Robert Langdon once again comes face to face with his most formidable adversary, the Demons of the story, …Opus Dei.
Due to his much publicized search for the Ark of the Covenant, Langdon has aroused the suspicion and fury of these Demons, who are not only looking for the Ark themselves,…..but are also secretly plotting the nuclear destruction of Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina in order to make Rome the only remaining Holy City of those priesthoods who claim the Power of the Biblical God for themselves. This way, all eyes will look to the Vatican as the only true Representatives of the Biblical God on earth.
It only makes sense that the last Holy City standing is the one God endorses.
In this sequel, our hero is saved from torture and death at their hands by the Angels.
Who are these people,…these Angels, that the Demons have been hunting down and killing for the last several centuries? This group had remained virtually invisible and unknown by the public for many centuries,….so why did they risk their lives, and exposure, to save Langdon?
Could it be that Robert Langdon is a blood relative of their Patriarch,…. Aaron who was chosen by Yahweh to be the first High Priest of Israel at the time of the Exodus?
The Scriptures identify Aaron as the Holy One in Psalm 106:16 which says, “And they began to envy Moses in the camp,…even Aaron, the Holy One of Yahweh.”
Undeniably, Aaron is the only one who was Scripturally documented, as the Holy One.
And, it is Biblically documented that only those ones who descended from Aaron’s own loins could serve in the capacity as High Priest of the Biblical God, Yahweh. (So, we have to ask ourselves, how does the Pope justify his position before God to the world,… when he does not descend from Aaron?)
The plot thickens.
Could Robert Langdon be a true Holy One? If so, his very existence, along with the existence of these other offspring of Aaron, poses a great threat to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church….and thus provides us with Opus Dei’s motive to destroy Robert Langdon and these fellow Angels of God.
Think about it! This unique group of individuals Dan Brown refers to as the Angels of the story, are the true descendants of THE Aaron. Aaron’s claim to fame is not the fact that he was Moses’ brother. Aaron was THE Holy One, the High Priest of Israel. He held a higher position in Israel than Moses did! Aaron’s offspring inherited this powerful position, while Moses’ sons inherited no position at all. So, why does the world know the name, Moses, while few people know the name, Aaron? As I said: Think about it!
Anyway, this secret society of Angels was formed prior to the destruction of Jerusalem’s Temple, and the destruction of the Aaronic Priesthood, by the Gentile Babylonian, King Nebuchadnezzar.
In the days of Josiah, prior to its destruction, things were not looking good for the city of Jerusalem. The prophets of God were foretelling doom for her. It was for certain that Solomon’s Temple would be destroyed. This left the Levites in a very precarious position. They were not only going to lose their lives,….the offspring of Aaron were going to lose their identity as the Holy Ones of God to the Demons.
It was only logical that if the Demons destroyed their rival Holy City, Jerusalem, that they would also destroy their rival priesthood, the sons of Aaron.
Once they destroyed the Aaronic Priesthood they would teach the masses to recognize the Gentile Priesthood, the Demons, as the holy ones.
These Angels would be killed and the utensils of the Temple would be carted off to Babylon where the Demons would use them in their Temple worship, portraying themselves as the Holy Ones of God.
How could the Aaronic Priesthood ever be resurrected once Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians and their Temple destroyed? How would the masses ever come to recognize the offspring of Aaron in the future as the only true Holy Ones chosen for the office of High Priest by Yahweh Himself?
They needed to protect the proof of their Divine Credentials. The most compelling proof of their chosen status was stored inside the Ark of the Covenant.
They couldn’t get everything safely out of the Temple without being noticed, but they might escape with one thing,….the most important thing.
The most important thing on their minds was the protection of the Ark of the Covenant and its contents, aka the “reminders”.
As they noted in the Scriptures, in Psalm 119:111, “I have taken your reminders as a possession to time indefinite…”
These reminders that they tucked safely away inside the Ark of the Covenant were:
(1) the two stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai written on by the Finger of God
(2) the almond rod upon which Aaron’s name was written
(3) the golden jar of manna
(4) the Sacred Scrolls which included all of Yahweh’s Laws.
Although all the “reminders” are important, it was by virtue of the almond rod itself that Yahweh made it very clear to the whole nation of Israel that He had chosen Aaron and his descendants to act as His High Priests.
Many of those ancient Israelites around Mount Sinai thought Moses had chosen Aaron for this powerful and distinguished position simply because Aaron was Moses’ brother. Not so! Yahweh chose Aaron. Yahweh chose Aaron over Moses!!!!
There were many people who rebelled when it was announced that Yahweh had chosen Aaron to be his High Priest, because many coveted this position for themselves. Then, there were those who believed that all the Levites were just as holy as Aaron was and told Moses as much.
Those Israelites who claimed that all the Levites were holy were killed rather dramatically by Yahweh. The earth opened up beneath them and swallowed them down. The other Levites who coveted the position of High Priest for themselves were cremated by fire that came out of the earth.
And, when the whole congregation of Israel rebelled against Aaron, even after seeing what Yahweh did to these other men and Levites who had rebelled thusly, Yahweh killed approximately 15,000 of them with a plague of death. More would have died but Aaron intervened for them.
This information is found in the 16th chapter of Numbers. One verse that stands out is verse 16 in which Yahweh says, “No man who is not of the offspring of Aaron should come to me to make incense smoke to Yahweh.”
Yahweh chose Aaron to be His High Priest and He would kill anyone who rejected His choice. Rejecting God’s choice is the same as rejecting the Authority of God and it was regarded by Him as treating Him disrespectfully.
Moral of the story: The Biblical God, Yahweh, chose Aaron to be His High Priest and if you choose not to recognize Aaron and his descendants as High Priests, you are disrespecting God and He will bring a plague of death upon you.
After killing several thousands of the Israelites for rebelling against an Aaronic Priesthood, Yahweh used the almond rods to prove exactly who He chose for this position. Yahweh said that by means of the almond rods that He would make it known who was holy.
One man came as a representative from each of the tribes with an almond rod and these rods were placed in the Tent of Meeting before God. Aaron’s name was written on his rod. The names of the other men who submitted almond rods are not recorded. So we don’t know who they were.
The next day they went in to retrieve those almond rods and to their amazement, Aaron’s rod had budded, and flowered, and there were even ripe almonds growing on it. This was Yahweh’s way of proving to all the Israelites that it was indeed Aaron who He had chosen for the position of High Priest.
And, as is recorded in Numbers 17:8-10,….Aaron’s rod was something to be kept for a “sign” to the sons of Israel that they may not die. That almond rod of Aaron’s was a sign that Yahweh would only accept sacrifices from Aaron and his offspring. Nobody else was to approach Him this way.
The Demons really hated that almond rod of Aaron’s and everything it represented.
In that far distant future we call “today”, this almond rod would prove to be a Divine Dagger to be thrust into the heart of the Demons, the Gentile Priesthood we now recognize as the Roman Catholic Church.
If the revelation of Aaron’s rod and knowledge that these Angels of God had been hunted down and killed for centuries by the Demons of the Roman Catholic Church,…..…..it would prove to be devastating to the Vatican. How would they explain themselves to the masses?
The revelation of this rod alone could destroy the Papacy, so the Demons could not stand by and allow themselves and the Church they had built to be destroyed by the recovery and publicizing of this visible proof that God had chosen an Aaronic Priesthood and that He rejected the men of the Vatican to act in this capacity. This rod would remind the world that God would not accept anybody but the offspring of Aaron as His legitimate High Priests. So, the Opus Dei had to make sure that when the Ark of the Covenant was found, that they were there to retrieve Aaron’s almond rod.
These 6th century B.C. Angels knew they had to hide the Ark to prevent it from falling into the hands of God’s enemies as it held the key to their resurrection back to their Divine status as the true Holy Ones. So they secretly prepared a hiding place for the Ark and its contents. And, in the secret of night, they moved it.
When King Josiah learned that they had moved the Ark, he was furious and ordered them to replace it. The fact that it is documented in the Scriptures that Josiah ordered them to replace it….screams the fact that these Aaronic priests had indeed “taken the reminders as a possession”.
Did they replace the Ark back into the Holiest of Holies with these “reminders”? Hell no! They were not in subjection to the king. They were in subjection to God Almighty, Yahweh. And, they had to protect the proof of their Divine Identity from being looted by the Demons. King Josiah might not believe the prophets of God when they said Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, but the Angels did. They trusted Yahweh and his prophets.
So, they simply put an empty replica in its place and no one was the wiser because no one was allowed inside the Holiest of Holies, where it was housed, to inspect it or its contents. Only the High Priest was allowed into that secret chamber.
Last, but certainly not least, these Angels knew that once they were killed that the Demons would take possession of the Holy Writings of Moses and the Prophets. If they allowed these Writings to fall into the hands of their enemies, the Demons would know for sure where they had hidden the Ark of the Covenant,….as there was only one place on this planet where these Aaronic priests felt the Ark would be safe. That place would become obvious if the Scriptures were read the way they were in their current order.
So, the Angels began the arduous task of rearranging the Scriptures, deleting parts here and there, leaving only Clues in their places. This would cause great confusion to the ordinary reader and cause him to abandon his search. So, having the Holy Writings would be of no benefit to the Demons in their efforts to find the Ark of the Covenant.
These Angels knew that one possible threat to the Demons finding the Ark was their offspring. Their exile to Babylon was prophesied to last 70 years. It was possible that this information could be tortured out of them,….if they indeed knew where the Ark was hidden.
So, those who hid the Ark made a pact never to relate its location to their offspring. This knowledge would die with them,….and be resurrected by their future offspring who had the intellect to decode the Clues they had left in the Holy Writings.
They did not tell their sons where they had hidden the Ark. The only thing they told them was that the clues to its location were carefully concealed in the Scriptures.
These Angels, who were escaping the fate that was about to befall their fathers, realized the importance of their mission. If they failed, the world would remain in subjection to the Demons. The cruelty of their Tyranny would spread death and destruction over the face of the earth until the whole planet was completely destroyed by them.
With one single copy of the coded Holy Writings in their possession these few Angels clothed themselves as commoners and escaped in the night toward Egypt where they caught a cargo ship bound for Europe. Once in Europe, they blended in with the locals.
They didn’t know where the Ark of the Covenant was, and they were not going to start trying to decipher the Clues to its whereabouts for at least another 70 years when it might be possible for them to return to Jerusalem.
It wasn’t long until they heard the news that Babylon had taken Jerusalem, their fathers had been killed, and many of the Levites had been exiled to Babylon.
This Quest by the Angels to reestablish the Aaronic Priesthood would extend into present day;….their cause would fall onto the shoulders of Robert Langdon if he were indeed one of them.
How could they prove that Robert Langdon was a true Angel? Science. These Angels had discovered the bones of Aaron on Mount Hor and had already created a DNA profile on him. The Angels had perfected a scientific method by which they could determine if a man were truly a descendant of Aaron. So once the world was made aware of their existence, this was one way they could prove to the world that they were indeed the offspring of the Holy One.
Now, all they needed to do was find the Ark of the Covenant and its contents. Then, they could prove to the world their claim that they were the true Holy Ones and reestablish the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood. Then, if the Vatican ordered the nuclear destruction of Jerusalem, the world would know why and would reject Rome as a Holy City of God.
Due to his books and lectures, Robert Langdon had proven himself one with an aptitude for unraveling ambiguous clues, so the Angels kept an eye on him not knowing if he were one of them,….or one of the Demons trying to lure them out into the open.
But, when the Angels saw Langdon being interviewed live on television and heard him make the comment that he had come to the conclusion that the Bible was not actually a Book, but a Collection of Clues that would one day lead to the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant; and that the clues he had uncovered suggested that there weren’t Ten Commandments etched on those two stone tablets but rather Ten Words, which he was going to reveal in the new book he was writing,….the Angels were fairly certain that Robert Langdon was indeed one of them.
Langdon ended the interview by saying that he hoped the interviewer’s cameras were there to document the event of the Ark’s discovery. Then, the world would know if there were indeed Ten Commandments or only Ten Words written on the stone tablets. With this remark, the Angels knew for certain that Langdon was not one of the Demons. The Demons would never allow the Ark to be brought under the world’s scrutiny. When the Demons found the Ark, they would destroy it and most of its contents. But, was Langdon truly one of them or just a fluke? They had to make sure.
That very night, upon leaving the studio where the interview had take place, Robert Langdon is rendered unconscious by a rag over his nose and mouth,….and when he awoke the next morning in a motel room, he found that one of his teeth had been extracted and there was a puncture mark on his arm. Other than that, he was fine.
After filing a police report our hero returns to his hotel room where he is attacked by an Opus Dei hit man. Yes, they had seen his televised interview the previous night as well. Fortunately, the Angels were there to rescue him in the nick of time.
The DNA results from Langdon’s samples proved conclusively to the Angels that Robert Langdon was indeed one of them,….a direct descendant of Aaron, yet Langdon was completely unaware of his heritage. They concluded that Langdon must be a descendant of a man their secret history identified as Simon the Simple-minded and the “goal” of Simon was programmed into his DNA and passed on to his descendants that way. So, Langdon’s ability to decipher clues was in great part programmed into his DNA. His desire to find the Ark of the Covenant was programmed into his DNA.
Simon had been lost to them since the time of the Knights Templar; they knew he had been killed along with many others on Friday the 13th. Langdon was living proof that Simon had fathered a child without their knowledge prior to that horrible day. So, Simon’s offspring were split from the group and grew up completely unaware of their Aaronic lineage.
Langdon’s new “family” began telling him of the Vatican’s plans to have Jerusalem nuked out of existence and that the only thing that kept them from nuking it was their hopes of finding the Ark of the Covenant which they believed to be buried somewhere in Jerusalem.
Why wouldn’t they simply destroy the Ark along with Jerusalem in a nuclear attack? Answer: the jar of manna. The Demons want to have a thorough analysis of the “manna” performed in order to determine “what it is”.
Manna means “what is it”? And, these Demons have been asking themselves this same question for a very long time. This manna has been described in the Psalms as the “grain of heaven”. They have determined that the manna holds the key to eternal life. If they can recreate it, they will have the very substance that will cure all sicknesses,………..even death.
This manna is referred to in the scroll called Revelation. (2:17) It says, “To him that conquers I will give some of the hidden manna.”
The Demons of the Gentile Priesthood we now call the Roman Catholic Church wanted to eat some of the manna that had been “hidden” in the Ark of the Covenant by the Angels. They wanted it badly,….and this is why they sent the Knights Templar to Jerusalem.
These Knights were not sent there to find something called the “holy grail”,….but the “holy GRAIN”.
Yes, that would be the holy grain that descended from heaven,…the manna. And, the only place on earth where manna could be found was inside that golden jar placed inside the Ark of the Covenant by the Angels of God, the offspring of Aaron, the true Holy One of God.
The Demons definitely want to eat the manna because they believe it will give them immortality, so it is imperative that the Demons safely remove the jar of manna from the Ark of the Covenant BEFORE they destroy the Ark and nuke Jerusalem off the face of the earth.
In this masterfully woven thriller our hero is forced to use all his skills as a master symbologist,….while calling on his knowledge of Biblical history, geography, and archaeology to unravel the greatest mystery of all time, and find the Ark of the Covenant before the Demons do.
Is it possible that these ancient Angels could have taken the Ark to Mount Sinai and hidden it in the very same cave where the prophet, Elijah, hid from the wrath of Jezebel? If so, then Robert Langdon will have to piece the Clues together to find the true location of Mount Sinai.
Or, did they hide it on Mount Hor in strategic proximity to the grave of Aaron? I’m not giving this one away. You’ll have to read see the movie.
Okay, this is not exactly the synopsis for Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons”. This is the story I wish he had written. This is what the story would have been about if Dan Brown had consulted me before writing it as I have been a Dan Brown fan since, “The DaVinci Code”.
To be honest, I didn’t read “Angels & Demons” but I did see the movie recently which prompted my writing of this essay. I have to believe that the book was better than the movie.
Still, the plot of the movie version of “Angels & Demons” was as thin as the Twinkie wrapper I just tossed into the trash.
When it comes to “Angels & Demons”,….I like my version better. My version is certainly much closer to the Truth.
© Copyright, May 2009
JoAnne Payton |
