Nino gently dug the clay padding around the indentation and opened up a small space behind the wall. From it he extracted an ancient stone box and lifted the lid to reveal an old, yellowed cloth wrapped loosely around another object.
Nino gently withdrew the cloth, revealing a scattered stack of papyrus fragments. The text on the antique scraps was unfamiliar to him, written in the ancient Coptic language common during the time of Christ. Nino knew that he couldn"t translate it, but he recalled his mother"s recitation of the heading: “This is the Gospel of Matthias, as passed down to his son Gaius, and then to Gaius" sons, Jacob and Aramus.”
In the dusty plains of Palestine, a holy man walked behind his Lord, a man of saintly heritage that many people said was sent by Yahweh, the god of
