The Lost 14 Years of Jesus in Egypt

My father just died; I loved him dearly. After the Catholic funeral, I buried him. My mother predeceased him by two years; I am the only child. After the reception, my wife and I went to his Fifth Avenue apartment. We were preparing to empty his place. We brought a few bins with us to collect his items. After filling two bins, my wife handed me a locked metal container. We searched for the key and found it in a cookie jar. I inserted the key, opened the lid, and found a letter from Pope Pius XII.

I took a photo of the letter, which appears below; sorry for the poor image quality. I will type the contents of the letter below the image.

His Holiness Pope Pius XII enters into a Bilateral Contract. Città del Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City.

12 August 1947, the eighth year of my Pontificate. It is I, Pope Pius XII, and these are my notes about a Bilateral Contract between the translator of Julius Philo’s eight manuscripts relating to The Life and  Times of Jesus, at Rome, at St. Peter’s.

12 August 1947

Dear Egyptian Translator, peace be with you. I have finished reading your translations from Julius  Philo’s eight manuscripts. You have completed a conclusive and plausible religious historical narrative. It is a story of Christ that has never been told by an eyewitness.

This part of my letter contains a threat to you: the Egyptian translator. Paul Lyon, a member of my papal household staff, and a man that you are thoroughly familiar with, presented me with a serious problem. Paul is extremely meticulous, and each day he collected from you the one and only one typed copy of Julius Philo’s eight manuscripts. Shortly after you departed for New York, Paul was clearing out the auditorium. Paul found over 100 carbon copy papers in the trash. Paul examined the carbon papers and discovered that you made a paper copy for yourself. Here is my threat, if you indeed have paper copies, and intend to publish The Lost 14 Years of Jesus in Egypt, we will issue an injunction, and have you extradited to Rome where you will be tried for theft. Please recall that you signed an agreement on 21 February 1947; it was witnessed by Paul Lyon.

This part of my letter contains an inducement for not publishing The Lost 14 Years of Jesus in Egypt. The reason that I offer you an inducement is two-fold, first for your silence, and second, I do not want Christians to read The Lost 14 Years of Jesus in Egypt. The book reveals that God’s first Son was the Egyptian Pharaoh Osiris. The suggestion that Osiris was a Son of God needs to be addressed by the Holy See, before it is revealed in a book. Furthermore, I do not want Hebrews to read the book. World War II was over, the Jewish population of Europe were the focus of hatred, and many were executed. More worrisome is the retelling of the Ancient Exegesis of the Departure from Egypt. Here, during the Exodus, the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, changed his name to Moses. Next, Akhenaten/Moses led 80,000 Egyptian-born quarry slaves to a town called Avaris in the Land of Goshen. Need I say more?

My dear translator, this is my inducement to you for not publishing The Lost 14 Years of Jesus in Egypt, the Holy See will purchase for you an apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Furthermore, you will be provided with a life-long generous pension. This pension will be increased by 10% every five years.

If you agree, please sign below. Your signature will indicate that you have agreed to the inducements provided by the Holy See. Please return the signed letter to the address on the letterhead; be sure to make a copy for yourself. When the signed letter reaches me, I will instruct Rev. Henry M. Tracy, the Pastor of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in New York to contact you directly. Each month Rev. Henry M. Tracy will give you your monthly stipend.

Have I unlocked the secret life of my father? I often wondered how he and my mother managed to live on Park Avenue. My dad bought a bookstore from August Brentano; located on Fifth between 47th and 48th Street. My mother worked with my dad; each time I visited them they were always happy.

We continued to rummage through the container and found carbon copies of a book. They were bound in a cardboard box; we opened the box immediately. To our great surprise, we found a carbon copy of The Life and Times of Jesus, by some guy named Julius Philo of Alexandria. We began to read a few pages, and when we reached page 22, this line appeared, “When I first met Jesus in Jerusalem, I was 36 years old. Jesus looked like a 12-year-old child but spoke like a prophet.”

We looked at each other with disbelief. Have we found an eyewitness to Jesus at age 12? This Julius Philo guy, we soon discovered he spent the lost 14 years with Jesus in Alexandria, Egypt. We were faced with a moral dilemma; my father signed a Papal document that included the phrase; “The book must not be published.” My brilliant wife suggests that we turn the paper copy book into an eBook. She said that it was my father that signed the ‘do not publish’ promise, not us. We now decided to contact a publisher. We found an educational publishing company in Canada. We contacted Michael Joseph Johnson at Johnson Publications. He agreed to read the eBook about Jesus written by Julius Philo.

We continued to look for clues about my father in the metal container. We found his copy of a book that he had published in October 1946. It was called the Lost 14 Years of Jesus in India. As we glanced at the newspaper we noticed that an ink smudge blocked his last name; what a shame. I took another photo of The New York Times front page, it is below.

Within a week, we were driving to Rochester New York to meet Michael at Bishop Bernard McQuaid Jesuit High School. It was his high school while living in Rochester. He loved the eBook and was willing to host my father’s book. We agreed upon a royalty, shook hands and he departed.

I want to add a personal note, please read my father’s eBook; you will love it.