Chapter 77

Langdon was impressed. Teabing had just finished writing out the entire twenty-two-letter Hebrewalphabet—alef-beit—from memory. Granted, he'd used Roman equivalents rather than Hebrewcharacters, but even so, he was now reading through them with flawless pronunciation.

　　A B G D H V Z Ch T Y K L M N S O P Tz Q R Sh Th"Alef, Beit, Gimel, Dalet, Hei, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud, Kaf, Lamed², Mem, Nun¹, Samech, Ayin,Pei, Tzadik, Kuf, Reish, Shin, and Tav." Teabing dramatically mopped his brow and plowed³ on. "Informal Hebrew spelling, the vowel⁴ sounds are not written. Therefore, when we write the wordBaphomet using the Hebrew alphabet, it will lose its three vowels⁵ in translation, leaving us—""Five letters," Sophie blurted⁶.

　　Teabing nodded and began writing again. "Okay, here is the proper spelling of Baphomet inHebrew letters. I'll sketch⁷ in the missing vowels for clarity's sake.

　　B a P V o M e Th"Remember, of course," he added, "that Hebrew is normally written in the opposite direction, butwe can just as easily use Atbash this way. Next, all we have to do is create our substitution schemeby rewriting the entire alphabet in reverse order opposite the original alphabet.""There's an easier way," Sophie said, taking the pen from Teabing. "It works for all reflectionalsubstitution ciphers⁹, including the Atbash. A little trick I learned at the Royal Holloway." Sophiewrote the first half of the alphabet from left to right, and then, beneath it, wrote the second half,right to left. "Cryptanalysts call it the fold-over. Half as complicated. Twice as clean."ABGDHVZChTYKThShRQTzPOSNMLTeabing eyed her handiwork and chuckled¹⁰. "Right you are. Glad to see those boys at the Hollowayare doing their job."Looking at Sophie's substitution matrix, Langdon felt a rising thrill that he imagined must haverivaled the thrill felt by early scholars when they first used the Atbash Cipher⁸ to decrypt the nowfamous Mystery of Sheshach. For years, religious scholars had been baffled by biblical referencesto a city called Sheshach. The city did not appear on any map nor in any other documents, and yetit was mentioned repeatedly in the Book of Jeremiah—the king of Sheshach, the city of Sheshach,the people of Sheshach. Finally, a scholar applied¹¹ the Atbash Cipher to the word, and his resultswere mind-numbing. The cipher revealed that Sheshach was in fact a code word for another verywell-known city. The decryption process was simple.

　　Sheshach, in Hebrew, was spelled: Sh-Sh-K.

　　Sh-Sh-K, when placed in the substitution matrix, became B-B-L.

　　B-B-L, in Hebrew, spelled Babel.

　　The mysterious city of Sheshach was revealed as the city of Babel, and a frenzy¹² of biblicalexamination ensued. Within weeks, several more Atbash code words were uncovered in the OldTestament, unveiling myriad¹³ hidden meanings that scholars had no idea were there.

　　"We're getting close," Langdon whispered, unable to control his excitement.

　　"Inches, Robert," Teabing said. He glanced over at Sophie and smiled. "You ready?"She nodded.

　　"Okay, Baphomet in Hebrew without the vowels reads: B-P-V-M-Th. Now we simply apply yourAtbash substitution matrix to translate the letters into our five-letter password."Langdon's heart pounded. B-P-V-M-Th. The sun was pouring through the windows now. He lookedat Sophie's substitution matrix and slowly began to make the conversion¹⁴. B is Sh... P is V...

　　Teabing was grinning like a schoolboy at Christmas. "And the Atbash Cipher reveals..." Hestopped short. "Good God!" His face went white.

　　Langdon's head snapped up.

　　"What's wrong?" Sophie demanded.

　　"You won't believe this." Teabing glanced at Sophie. "Especially you.""What do you mean?" she said.

　　"This is... ingenious," he whispered. "Utterly¹⁵ ingenious!" Teabing wrote again on the paper.

　　"Drumroll, please. Here is your password." He showed them what he had written.

　　Sh-V-P-Y-ASophie scowled¹⁶. "What is it?"Langdon didn't recognize it either.

　　Teabing's voice seemed to tremble with awe¹⁷. "This, my friend, is actually an ancient word ofwisdom."Langdon read the letters again. An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll¹⁸. An instant later he gotit. He had newer seen this coming. "An ancient word of wisdom!"Teabing was laughing. "Quite literally¹⁹!"Sophie looked at the word and then at the dial. Immediately she realized Langdon and Teabing hadfailed to see a serious glitch²⁰. "Hold on! This can't be the password," she argued. "The cryptexdoesn't have an Sh on the dial. It uses a traditional Roman alphabet.""Read the word," Langdon urged. "Keep in mind two things. In Hebrew, the symbol for the soundSh can also be pronounced as S, depending on the accent. Just as the letter P can be pronounced F."SVFYA? she thought, puzzled.

　　"Genius!" Teabing added. "The letter Vav is often a placeholder for the vowel sound O!"Sophie again looked at the letters, attempting to sound them out.

　　"S...o...f...y...a."She heard the sound of her voice, and could not believe what she had just said. "Sophia? Thisspells Sophia?"Langdon was nodding enthusiastically. "Yes! Sophia literally means wisdom in Greek. The root ofyour name, Sophie, is literally a 'word of wisdom.' "Sophie suddenly missed her grandfather immensely. He encrypted the Priory keystone with myname. A knot caught in her throat. It all seemed so perfect. But as she turned her gaze to the fivelettered dials on the cryptex, she realized a problem still existed. "But wait... the word Sophia hassix letters."Teabing's smile never faded. "Look at the poem again. Your grandfather wrote, 'An ancient wordof wisdom.' ""Yes?"Teabing winked²¹. "In ancient Greek, wisdom is spelled S-O-F-I-A."

兰登记得很清楚，提彬刚刚凭记忆写完了为数22 个的所有的希伯来字母。经过允许，他采用了相应的罗马字母，而不是希伯来字母，但即使如此，他还是用准确无误的希伯来式的发音来朗读这些字母。

ABGDHVZChTYKLMNSOPTzQRShTh提彬念道："阿勒夫（Alef），贝特（Belt），达勒（Dalet），赫依（Hei），维夫（Vav），扎因（Zayin），切特（Chet），特德（Tet），尤德（Yud），卡夫（Kaf），拉姆德（Lamed），墨姆（Mem），纳恩（Nun），萨姆西（Samech），阿因（Ayin），佩因（Pei），扎迪克（Tzadik），库夫（Kuf），雷希（Reish），希因（shin），塔夫（TaV）。"提彬夸张地擦了擦眉头，然后继续费力地钻研下去。"在正式的希伯来书写体系里，元音字母是不需要写出来的。所以，如果用希伯来字母拼写鲍芙默神这个单词，就会失去三个元音，只剩下--""五个字母。"索菲脱口叫道。

提彬点了点头，又开始写起来。"好了，这就是用希伯来字母拼写鲍芙默神这个单词的正确形式。为了清楚起见，我把省略的三个元音字母也在这里写出来。"BaPVoMeTh"当然，你得记住。"他继续补充道："希伯来语一般是从相反的方向写起的，但这里我们照样能够运用埃特巴什码。接下来，我们必须将所有的这些字母，按照与原先排列方向相反的顺序重写一遍，用这种方式来创造我们自己的替换系统。""还有一个更简便的方法。"索菲把笔从提彬的手里拿过来："它对所有反射性的，包括埃特巴什码在内的替换密码都很管用。这是我在皇家霍洛威大学学到的小把戏。"她先从左到右写了字母的前一半，然后又在下面从右到左写剩下的那部分字母。"密码分析专家把它称作重影，单看部分很复杂，再看就容易明白了。"

┌─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐│A│B│G│D│H│V│Z│Ch│T│Y│K│├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤│Th│Sh│R│Q│Tz│P│O│S│N│M│L│└─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘提彬瞄了索菲写的东西一眼，笑着说："不错嘛。看到霍洛威大学的后生们术业有专攻，我真的很高兴呐。"兰登看着索菲画的替换矩阵，不禁越发颤栗起来。他想，以前最早使用埃特巴什码的那些学者，在破译当今很出名的什萨克城（Sheshach）之谜的时候，其激动兴奋之情，也不过是如此吧。多年来宗教学者们一直对《圣经》上提到的什萨克城的说法颇为不解。

因为查遍所有的地图，翻遍所有的文献，也找不到这个城市，但它却多次在《圣经》中的《耶利米书》里提到，如什萨克城的国王啦，什萨克城啦，以及什萨克城的臣民等。

最后，有位学者运用埃特巴什码进行分析，而显示出来的结果几乎让人要晕厥过去。

分析表明，什萨克城实际上就是另一个特别有名的城市的代名词。其解析过程非常简单。

什萨克城，用希伯来语拼写就是：Sh-Sh-K.

Sh-Sh-K，如果用以上的密码矩阵来加以替换，就变成了B-B-L.

B-B-L，用希伯来语的话来讲，就是巴比伦城。

分析表明，神秘的Sheshach 城就是通常所说的巴比伦城，自此引起了一场《圣经》考据热。几周之内，通过采用埃特巴什码进行分析，《旧约》里好几个令人费解的词又相继找到了解释，使原先那些学者连想都没想过的许多隐藏的含义浮出了水面。

"我们也差不多了。"兰登低声地说，按捺不住内心激动的情绪。

"还差一点呢，罗伯特。"提彬说。他扫了索菲一眼，笑道："你准备好了没有？"

索菲点了点头。

"好的，鲍芙默神，如果用无元音字母的希伯来语，就是这样：B-P-V-M-Th.现在，我们简单运用你画的埃特巴什替换矩阵，将这些字母转换成五个字母的密码。"兰登的心"咚咚"地跳起来。B-P-V-M-Th.阳光正从窗户外倾泻进来。他看着索菲的密码替换矩阵，开始慢慢地进行转换。B 是Sh……P 是V……

提彬高兴得像圣诞节晚会上快乐的小孩。"还有，埃特巴什码显示--"他突然停住了。

"天哪！"他的脸色刷地苍白起来。

兰登立刻抬起头来。

"你怎么啦？"索菲赶忙问。

"你们不会相信吧。"他看了看索菲。"特别是你。"

"你这是什么意思？"

"这个--真是聪明。"他喃喃自语："聪明绝顶了！"提彬重新在纸上写了一遍。"来，鼓励一下。这就是你要的密码！"他把刚写过的东西给他们看：Sh-V-P-Y-A.

索菲有点不悦："什么玩意嘛？"

兰登也没有立刻看出来。

提彬的声音颤抖起来，似乎充满了敬畏："其实，这个宇在古代就是智慧的意思。"

兰登又看了这些字母。"一个蕴含智慧的古词，能揭开这卷轴的秘密。"过了一会，他总算明白过来。他从未想到会是这样。"一个蕴含智慧的古词！"

提彬大笑起来："非常正确！"

索非看着那个词，又看了那个刻度盘，很快便意识到兰登与提彬都犯了同样严重错误。

"这不可能是密码。"她争辩道："刻度盘上的密码盒没有Sh.它用的是传统罗马字母。"

"你看看这个。"提彬在一旁敦促道。"有两点请你记住。第一，希伯来语中代表Sh 音的符号也可以发S 音，这可以根据方言口音而定，就像字母P 也可以读作F 那样。""SVFYA？"索菲想，大惑不解。

"真是天才！"提彬补充说："人们经常用字母V 来替换元音字母O 的！"

索菲看那几个字母，试着把它们读了出来："S-o-f-y-a."

她听到自己读的声音， 简直不敢相信自己的耳朵： "Sophia ？ 这个词拼作Sophia？！"兰登热切的点了点头。"对呀！Sophia 在希腊语中字面义就是智慧的意思。你的名字，究其根源，其字面义就是智慧的意思。"索菲突然非常想念起祖父来。他竟然用我的名字来编制这密码！她的喉咙似乎被打上了个结。一切似乎是那么的完美。然而当她扭头去看那五个字母时，她意识到还有一个问题。

"等等--Sophia 有六个字母呢！"

提彬始终面带着微笑："你再看看这首诗吧。你祖父是这么写的："一个蕴含智慧的古词。""提彬眨了眨眼："在古希腊语里，"智慧"这个词就拼作S-O-F-I-A."

1 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

2 lamed   

希伯莱语第十二个字母

参考例句：

• He was lamed in the earthquake when he was a little boy. 他还是小孩子时在地震中就变跛了。
• The school was lamed by losses of staff. 学校因教职人员流失而开不了课。

3 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句

4 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

5 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

6 blurted   

v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止，她已脱口而出。
• He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相，说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

8 cipher   

n.零；无影响力的人；密码

参考例句：

• All important plans were sent to the police in cipher.所有重要计划均以密码送往警方。
• He's a mere cipher in the company.他在公司里是个无足轻重的小人物。

9 ciphers   

n.密码( cipher的名词复数 )；零；不重要的人；无价值的东西

参考例句：

• The ciphers unlocked the whole letter. 解密码的方法使整封信的意义得到说明。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The writers often put their results in ciphers or anagrams. 写信人常常把成果写成密码或者搞成字谜。 来自辞典例句

10 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

11 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

12 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

13 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

14 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

15 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

16 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

17 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

18 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

19 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

20 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

21 winked   

v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮

参考例句：

• He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing that she was. 他冲她眨了眨眼，她便知道他的想法和她一样。
• He winked his eyes at her and left the classroom. 他向她眨巴一下眼睛走出了教室。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》