The Cenacle Scroll

by Anthony F. Lewis

Jennifer Goodwyn, a Cornell University graduate student, inadvertently returns home to sleepy Ithaca, N.Y. from an archaeological dig at the Cenacle—the purported site of the Last Supper—with an ancient bone box. The ossuary is found to contain several pieces of early first century stoneware, and a mysterious, tiny scroll. When the Aramaic glyphs on the slip of crumbling papyrus are translated, they identify the humble dinner setting as the one used by a rabblerousing Nazarene rabbi at his Seder meal, on the evening he’d been arrested by the Romans.

One ill-considered impulse—asking a local parish priest to say Mass with the ceremonial Seder cup—sweeps Jennifer away to churches, cathedrals, sports stadiums, and to a powerful Cardinal's basilica to celebrate Mass with the vessel and to exhibit it before ever-growing crowds of believers.

But soon, all hell breaks loose. While the State Department is aggressively seeking its return to Israel, a nationwide political movement starts rising up around the relic. And Jennifer soon discovers that the storied artifact is causing sickness and even death among those who remain too long in its presence. In an effort to stem the political mayhem and insure the safety of the faithful, Jennifer hits the road, trying to stay one step ahead of the feds until she can find a way to quell the growing public chaos unleashed by the revelations of The Cenacle Scroll.

431 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 16, 2010

About the author

I started my first novel sometime in mid-2000, on a Metro-North commuter train traveling into Manhattan, writing on my then new Mac Powerbook. The title stuck—The Third Revolution—but the rest of the work I'd completed was tossed out in early 2002 when I started the project anew. I completed that manuscript, found and worked with a professional editor, and, after spending about a year learning how not to attract a literary agent, I eventually took a chance on the then cutting edge publish-on-demand technology and got the book "out there." The first paperback edition of The Third Revolution appeared on Amazon (as well as in several local bricks-and mortar bookstores) in May of 2004. I have to admit, I liked the feeling.

Better than a decade later, the Mac has finally been retired (recently replaced by a new Dell Inspiron 7000 running a hot i7 processor) and I've somehow managed to write and publish six novels (The Third Revolution, Middle America, Little Birdies!, The Last Bartender, The Cenacle Scroll and Aqua Vitae). A seventh book, tentatively titled Free State, is presently in the works.

In my pre-MBA days, a time when I had ready access to fast motorcycles and sympathetic women, I worked as a bartender at the historic Peter Luger Steakhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, the El Morocco Club (Elmer's) on Second Avenue (circa 1981, when it was operating as a steakhouse), the infamous Diamond's Whisky Parlor in Flushing and poured shots-and-beers (and kept my head down) through several stabbings and the occasional gunfire at Pirate's Pub in Kew Gardens, Queens. I re-entered the industry in 2011, working the bar at Frogs End Tavern within the elegant Glenmere Mansion, an exclusive eighteen-room boutique hotel in Chester, NY, and from behind the stick at the President's Bar at the venerable Powelton Country Club in Newburgh, NY. For most of 2012 I was at The Cellar Door Bistro in Ridgefield, CT. and at the MTK Tavern in Mount Kisco, NY.

I was last found plying my trade at the King Street Restaurant & Bar in Chappaqua, NY, which, unfortunately, closed its doors during the summer of 2014. During that time I also worked the busy Sunday brunch shift at the Bissell House in Ridgefield, CT (apparently now the Dog and Pony, under the same management), and picked up a few lunch shifts at the still popular Hideaway, also in Ridgefield. The motorcycles and women have yet to reemerge, but I remain ever hopeful in that regard.