The Priest — Ellen Gunderson Traylor

Updated, with new introduction. When young archaeology professor David Rothmeyer gets a cryptic invitation to do secret research for a mysterious Israeli group calling themselves the Temple Consortium, he accepts, hoping the assignment will displace his grief over the recent loss of his wife. He has no idea that his research, if successful, could trigger a world crisis of unprecedented proportions. The Consortium is eager to possess a certain missing Dead Sea Scroll that reveals the genealogical line from Aaron that will pinpoint the identity of Judaism's true high priest. With the authentic priesthood in place, they will rebuild their temple and, for the first time in two millennia, reinstate their ancient Levitical worship in its pristine form. But powerful forces are determined to block David's research: Islamic groups because it would mean destroying the Dome of the Rock, the sacred Islamic shrine which occupies the sacred ground where the Temple must be built; a rightist militia group in Montana with a white supremacist agenda that marks Judaism as a threat to western civilization. As David pursues leads from Dachau to Oxford to the caves of Qumran, it becomes apparent that many lives are in grave danger and he must depend on the help of a small group that providentially forms around him, a group that includes ex-white supremacist Pete Wester, his Jewish girlfriend Honey Aronstam, and his policeman brother Mel; Oxford scholar Father Ian McCurdy, who for nearly fifty years has hidden away an explosive secret that is the key to David's quest; and Britta Hayworth, a beautiful and persistent British reporter, who does more than David is willing to admit to drive his grief into the corners of his mind. On the brink of success, David realizes that his discovery could usher in the Apocalypse and the end of the world as he knows it. (Sequel to THE PRIEST is THE ORACLE.)