Leaving Again

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for a four day trip to the Galilee region of Israel, north of Jerusalem. That means that we won’t have the internet once again. So, once again, this site probably will not be updated for another few days. I will be sure to fill you in on all our activities when we get back.

As for today, we had a test in the morning and then class until 2:30pm. In class we mapped out the Galilee so that we would be relatively familiar with it before we go there. There are many exciting sites to see there and we are going to most of them over the next four days. After class we all did various things, many of us just used the day for rest. Tonight a group of us are going to and erev shabbat (sabbath evening) service in a local synagogue to add one more meaningful experience to the itinerary.

Sorry we’ll be gone, but we’ll be back in a few days.

Our Trip to the Negev

There is so much catching up to do. We pretty much just got back from our journey through the Negev region. We had an absolute blast despite how exhausting all our various activities proved to be. I guess the best place to start is from the beginning…

Day 1:The first site we saw on Tuesday was a Roman road set into the trees in the hills of the Shphelah where the Romans, expert road makers as they were, carved steps right into the rock to make for more easy travel. Fascinating as it was, we only briefly looked on the Roman road and moved right on to our next location, the Valley of Elah where David fought and defeated Goliath. The valley is a huge open space and it is impossible to know exactly where David fought Goliath. All it says in the text is that the battle was between Azekah and Soko which, when you see it, you realize how imprecise that designation really is. We stopped along the highway in the Valley of Elah to do our own reenactment of the famouse battle of David and Goliath. Whoever was in charge of casting sure did a good job. Among us there was no better Goliath than Cliff and no better David that the great Dr. Duke himself. We faced off, Philistine vs. Israelite, while the narrators and main characters read their lines with Oscar-deserving dramatic performance. Dr. Duke was such a believable David that we half expected Cliff to go down for real.

After the Valley of Elah we continued on to Tel Azekah, where we could get a good look at the Valley of Elah from above and discuss a bit of the archaeology that has been done on the tel.  We then continued on to Meresha which provided various items of interest. The first of those items of interest were the bell caves. These caves were dug by the Romans. The caves themselves served no real purpose, rather the reason the caves were dug was to use the materials they were digging up, the stone and soil, for building purposes. The second interesting items at Meresha were also caves but very different from the Bell Caves. These other caves were used to keep birds, doves to be more specific, in order for sacrifice and worship ritual. Unlike the Bell Caves which were very smoothly carved, the dove caves had crevices carved into them in which the birds would nest until they were collected to be used in ritual practice. At Meresha there were also very interesting tombs which we inspected.

After Meresha we went to the site of Lachish which had some sentimental value for Dr. Mullins because he excavated that site for two seasons while he was still a student back in the iron age (yes, that was a joke).  At first he wasn’t going to walk us around the site… but we begged.

We finished off the day with a glorious dip in the Mediterranean Sea. We stopped at a beach and most of us eagerly raced for the water. The water was surprisingly warm, probably warmer than my pool back home. The beach was really nice, as beautiful as your average Los Angeles or San Diego beach. It was a great way to end the day. That night we stayed at a youth hostile in Beer Sheva where we had the best collective dinner we’ve had all trip long.

Day 2: We started out on Wednesday with a visit to Beer Sheva where we saw a really cool reconstruction of an altar that was found on the site there. An interesting point about the altar was that is was Israelite but it was not Kosher. The Biblical mandate for building an altar includes that it be built from un-hewn stone and the one found at Beer Sheva was made from hewn stone.

After Beer Sheva we went on an exhilarating nature hike through the wilderness of Zin (or Sin in other translations. As we were hiking, just before the more brutal part of the hike, we read about when the Israelites were wandering through the Wilderness of Zin after the Exodus, complaining. Then we found out why they complained as we hiked the last leg of the trail’s steep ascent. The part of the Wilderness of Zin which we hiked was surprisingly beautiful, with a stream running through it. Its beauty was unexpected before the background of harsh desert.

After our hike through the Wilderness of Zin we traveled to a Nabatean settlement from the first century and into the Byzantine period called Avdat. Avdat was huge. The Nabateans built it up and out because first of all they enjoyed relative peace, giving them freedom and time to build more, and second of all they were getting rich because of their convenient location on the trade route. On this site there were two Byzantine churches. Both of them were beautiful and well kept. We could see the layout of the churches, both seemed to be close to identical.

The last site we visited on Wednesday was a site called Arad. This site had an Israelite temple on it but there was a problem with this temple. The altar was kosher, it was made with un-hewn stone,  but the Davir (the Holy of Holies) inside the temple had standing stones and incense tables set up for the worship of two deities. We are sure by the layout and the time period that this temple was Atheistic (they worshiped Yahweh, the God of the Bible) but who is this other deity? No one knows… But Dr. Mullins did present an option. He talked about two inscriptions which were at two other sites which referred to Yahweh and his Ashera. Ashera was  a Canaanite goddess, definitely not kosher for Jewish worship since they were only to worship Yahweh. What’s going on in these inscriptions and what is possibly going on at Arad is a syncretism of Canaanite and Israelite religion… a big no no. In fact, Josiah and Hezekiah both condemned such syncretism during their respective reigns and during Josiah’s reign the alter at Arad went out of use. This could be evidence that one of the places that Josiah shut down for un-kosher  worship was in fact Arad.

That night we stayed at a very nice hostel at Masada, where it was extremely hot… collectively we sweat a lot.

Day 3: Early in the morning, before the sun rose, a few of us rose to climb up the snake path to the fortress of Masada to watch the sun rise. According to those who hiked so early in the morning, the sunrise was a magnificent sight over the Dead Sea. Later on, when everyone was awake and had eaten breakfast, we went up as a group to Masada. At this extravagant fortress on the mountain Herod built bathhouses and lookout points and a palace in his excessively luxurious fashion. After Herod, however, the most famous and dramatic story of Masada’s history took place. Some Zealots who had made station there during the Jewish revolt were surrounded by Roman siege camps in 73AD (three years after the fall of Jerusalem). The Romans could not approach the city by simply hiking up to it, they could not get their battering rams up to the city gates by rolling them up the mountain. So, using Jewish slaves, the Romans built a ramp all the way up to the walls of the city on which they could roll their battering rams. For months the Romans built this ramp as the Zealots, who were far out numbered (more than 3 to 1), could do  nothing but watch and wait for their immanent defeat.  Knowing full well what horrible things the Romans would do to them and their families and believing that falling to Roman hands was dishonor to God, the Zealots made a pact. Before the Romans could get to them they burned their storehouses, killed their wives and children, and then chose ten from among them to kill all the other 950 men and then kill themselves. It was a huge mass-suicide. The Romans entered a quiet fortress when they finally breached the walls of Masada. Such a dramatic story is even more dramatic when you can look down to the Roman camps and imagine the sinking feeling as you watch your own people, now slaves to the Romans, built a ramp leading nowhere if not to your destruction.

After Masada we went to En Gedi, bobbed in the Dead Sea, ate lunch and hiked (yes, more hiking) up to the waterfalls where David may have hid from Saul as mentioned in the book of Samuel. The beauty of the Wadi of David proved even more surprising than that of the Wilderness of Zin the day before. It was beautiful waterfalls set in jungle-like landscape overlooking the Dead Sea. It was comfortable and cool while everything around it was dry and hot.

After En Gedi, we finished our day at Qumran, the settlement which is believed to be the place of origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We toured around the site, looking on the multiple ritual baths as Dr. Duke led us and explained the contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the function and ideology behind the Mikva’ot (ritual baths), and the history of the site. For those of us most interested and fascinated by the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran will remain a huge highlight of the trip. We made a quick trip to one of the caves in which the scrolls were discovered. We went to cave 11 (after failing at locating cave 1), the last to be discovered, and wondered inside. It seems obvious, just by how close the caves are to the settlement, that Qumran had to be associated with the scrolls.

We are now back at JUC in Jerusalem. The past three days have been busy and fun, but we have missed you.

We’re gonna be gone from the internet

Today was our first real exam, for those of us who are taking the class for credit. We were tested on all the information we’ve been learning since we’ve been here, just another way for us to learn the most and get the most out of our experience in Israel. Many felt confident that they nailed the test, others felt no as confident but no matter what, we are all learning a lot here. We spent a good portion of the rest of the day in class and then we were set free for dinner and wondering around the Old City. Tomorrow we’re on another travel day and for the next two nights we will be staying in a sort of hotel off campus because we are going to be pretty far off for the next couple of days. That means we probably won’t have the internet and that means that I won’t be able to update the blog. Therefore you will have to check back in on us in three days to see what we’re up to. I will be keeping notes about each day that we are gone from campus and from the internet so as to be able to give you some details about what we did while we were away.

Free Day

Today was a free day so we all did various things. Some of us took a bus out to Tel Aviv, some went to the Western Wall, many visited different churches for Sunday service or mass, some just went shopping. It was a good day to just hang out in Jerusalem.

You really should check out Jeremy’s reflection entitled “In Search of Significance” on the student reflections page. He deals with his search for meaning in all these holy places we’ve visited.

Gezer… Jericho

Shabbat Shalom! When we walked down to the bus this morning to head out for the day, one thing was immanently noticeable… quiet. We walked by the streets from which we have become accustomed to hearing constant traffic noise but today it was undeniably calm. It was obvious that today was the shabbat (the sabbath). On Saturday, starting on Friday evening, all the Jews of the city take it easy. It is a day of rest; rest from work, rest from strain, and rest from travel. As we traveled around all the streets had considerably less traffic on them than normal. On the sabbath, the city slows down. Can you imagine that in L.A. or San Diego or wherever in the US? It was heavenly.

Today was yet another busy day. We got the same bus driver today as we did yesterday. He is a Palestinian named Tony who lives in the Christian Quarter. He is a great driver who maneuvers a tour bus like a sports car and he’s a really cool guy. We traveled to a few different lookout points which were amazing for seeing Israel. We went to Gezer, a tel that has ruins from the Middle-Bronze era (the time of Abraham, Isaak, and Jacob) and later (including the iron age which is around the time of Solomon). There was pottery bits lying around all over the place and many of us found some pretty interesting pieces. Dr. Mullins, who happens to be an expert on ancient pottery, was able to identify many of our pieces as being from the Middle-Bronze and Iron age. We also went to what is called the Nabi Samwil (which means the prophet Samuel in Arabic), a traditional place for Samuel’s burial. From there we could see all around, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.

The longest part of the day was the trip to Jericho. We saw the place where the city of Jericho that we read about in Joshua would have been. Unfortunately, we have very little remains from Joshua’s time but we have plenty more from before his time. The famous tumbled walls of Jericho are nowhere to be found. First of all, they would have been cleaned up by later re-builders and secondly, one of the theories is that because of the nutrients of the soil on a tel, peasant farmers removed everything we should have from Joshua’s time in order to use the soil and it’s nutrients for fertilizer and other things. Nevertheless, we have some really interesting walls and tower remains at Jericho.

After we left Jericho and also saw Herod’s palace at Jericho we stopped by a sycomore tree in the area of where Zachaeus would have climbed into one. On the way back to Jerusalem for dinner Tony put on some of his music and the rest of the drive was something like a dance party. I think we almost got Dr. Mullins dancing but unfortunately he refused.

Jerusalem Approaches

If Jerusalem is a beautiful city from the inside, it is extravagant from the outside.

Today we traveled by bus from Jerusalem to Bethlehem starting with the Mount of Olives, just east of the Old City of Jerusalem. From the summit of the Mount of Olives we looked east out toward the Dead Sea and west back into the city of Jerusalem. The view was breathtaking as we were able to see all the way out to the Judean Wilderness, the Plains of Moab, and even a piece of the Dead Sea. We could also look down upon the Temple Mount where the Dome of the rock stands.

On the Mount of Olives there are several churches. We stopped at the church at the Pater Noster (Our Father) where upon the walls the Lord’s Prayer fills the walls in more than 60 different languages. This church is meant to commemorate the place where Jesus taught his disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

After that we hiked a little further to another church commemorating the location where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Unfortunately, those of us who were wearing shorts weren’t allowed in. Shorts are considered too immodest and therefore disrespectful to the sanctity of the location. Those who could not enter could still appreciate the beautiful architecture of this church which was ornamented with tear shaped decorations on its’ corner steeples. We also visited one of the traditional locations of Mary’s tomb and what is called the Church of All Nations (because it was funded by money from several nations) where Jesus prayed in agony on the eve of his crucifixion. The Mount of Olives was quite a powerful place because of all the emotions it’s churches represent. As we tread upon the mountain and walk where Jesus walked, we feel the joy he shared with his disciples, his passion for his people, and his agony of betrayal. We are taken on a roller coaster through all that Jesus must have felt.

After the Mount of Olives we took the bus to Bethlehem. Just south-east of Bethlehem is the archaeological site of what is called the Herodian, a fortress built by King Herod to which he could flee in case of unrest in Jerusalem. it is a fortress dug into a hill, encompassing the whole summit. From the top of this fortress we saw all around us, into the Judean Wilderness, the Dead sea, and back toward Jerusalem. On the horizon we could see the Mount of Olives. Herod’s fortress was impressive, not only for the luxuriousness it would have held in it’s day but also for the military genius of the place. After hiking to the top, none of us could imagine trying to siege the fortress, making that hike with armor and battering rams and such. Attacking the Herodian would be about the same as trying to siege a mountain.

After leaving the Herodian we made our way to the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem, a beautifully ornate Orthodox church. Sharing a wall with the Orthodox church is a Catholic church, both commemorating the birthplace of Jesus. We walked down into the basement of the church and saw the exact place which is said to be where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Many of us placed our hands on the place or simply paused to meditate on the power of its meaning. Dr. Mullins explained that this place actually could be an authentic site. It’s in the right general place and dates back to the right time. Dr. Mullins explained that what we see in most of our Bibles as “the inn” (Luke 2:7) could also be translated as guest room. If it was a guest room in the family’s home that was full, then the manger or stable would have been in the basement (a much more private location for giving birth) much like the one we walked down into to see where Jesus was born. So the Church of the Nativity is at least a possible location for Jesus birth… not that it would necessarily take away from it’s meaning if it was not.

We’re all getting pretty tired (as you might be able to sense by the grammar of this post) but we’re all having a blast. Tomorrow we go to Jericho.

New Testament Jerusalem

The majesty of this place never ends. Around every corner is something spectacular. After yesterday, walking around Jerusalem looking at Old Testament sights, one might think a second trip would be repetitive and it surely was not. Today we traveled around the Old City looking at New Testament sights. We started out with the traditional Upper Room from the last supper narrative. Unfortunately, the room which the church has traditionally revered at the room where Jesus held his famous last meal, Peter gave his Pentecost speech, and the Council of Jerusalem held conference cannot be the right place. These events happened in the first century (Harodian period). The architecture dates back to the16th century Ottoman period, far too late. But nevertheless, lack of historicity does not necessarily negate the spiritual power and truth of the location.

After our trip to the Upper Room we went to a first century Harodian villa excavation site. This villa does date back to Jesus time and surely would have been familiar to him. These houses must have belonged to Priests and could have been the site for Caiaphas’ home, though we have no idea which one it could have been since they were nearly identical (like track housing) and there is no indication either way. We know they belonged to priests because there were Mikvah’ot (ritual bathing pools) inside the homes.

We then went up to the Temple Mount and saw excavation of a road at it’s foot dating back to 44AD (still too late for Jesus) which had been crushed under falling stones from the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70AD. We saw the huge stones from pre-70AD and the repairs made later by the Ottoman (the difference was in the sixe of the stones… Harod’s stones were enourmouse and the Ottoman and Umayad repairs were done with much smaller stones) and the damage they did on the street when they fell upon it.

We then walked to the double-gate, a 1st century entrance and exit to the Temple Mount which has been completely blocked off. Dr. Mullins showed us a small corner leading up to the exit of the double-gate where the ground floor of the 1st century was still exposed and he told us that if there was any place in the city where we could be sure that Jesus stood, it was on that small spot (about 10 square feet). Of course, at this, we all squeezed in to set our feet on that place, many of us imagining Jesus walking on that ground, wondering what his eyes might have seen as he walked out from the Temple Mount looking down toward where the Kidron, Central, and Hinom valleys meet. It was surely a highlight for most of us.

After this we made our way across the Eastern side of the temple Mount, outside the city walls, through a Muslim cemetary as the beautifully musical Muslim call to prayer was sounding from loudspeakers across the Kidron Valley. We saw the famouse Golden Gate or East Gate. We walked back into the city through St. Stephen’s Gate on the opposite side of the Temple Mount from the Double-Gate and headed for the Pools of Bethesda excavation. We saw where the pools would have been and where the huge water basins would have been in Jesus day and where the lame man from John 5 would have been healed. The pools were conveniently located close to one of the traditional locations (there are a few) of Mary’s birth. We walked into a beautiful church with amazing acoustics where we sang the doxology together. Beneath the church is an altar commemorating Mary’s birth.

To cap off the day we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional and most likely location for Jesus death and resurrection. We will tour it on a later date, as we did not have time to go in. Needless to say, today was an adventure. This city is just amazing. Everywhere you go there is something historic and monumental.

Jerusalem of the Old Testament

Today, after our classes in which Dr. Mullins gave an intriguing lecture on geology, archaeology, and history, we went on an Old Testament Jerusalem walk. On this walk we saw what few pieces that we can see of the city before Jesus time and during the Old Testament. Of course, when we talk about Old Testament Jerusalem, it’s almost as though we are talking about a several cities. The city went through different kingships and periods and it changed so much that, for example, the Hasmonean Kingdom’s Jerusalem is hardly the same city as the city of Hezekiah’s reign. We saw pieces of Hezekiah’s wall, the first wall (Hasmonean wall), and parts of what very well could be King David’s Jerusalem which is a tiny little spot located outside the walls of today’s Old City. We stopped in the shop of a man named Moshe (Moses) in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. Moshe was, for some of us, a highlight because he was so articulate and had such an appreciation for Christians. He is all about reconciliation between Christians and Jews based on mutual understanding.

To cap off the day we walked through a 2000 yard long tunnel which was dug into the limestone during Hezekiah’s reign (701 BCE). It leads from outside Hezekiah’s wall at the Gihon Spring to the inside at The Siloam Pool (read John 9). It was made in order to secure a safe water source in case it was not safe outside the walls of the city. It’s quite a feat of architecture for the time period. We all squeezed through this tiny little dark tunnel, especially tiny to those of us who are exceptionally tall or wide, with ankle deep water flowing through it. It was quite a claustrophobic but spectacular experience.

Getting Acquainted With the Old City

Today we took our Old City walk–a walk through the Old City of Jerusalem. We started off with explanation of the rich history of JUC, where we’re staying, and then headed into Jerusalem. We took a walk along the ramparts of the Old City Walls where we could look down into the Old City and out into the new city. Stopping along the way for detailed historical explanation of what we were looking at, we used today to get acquainted with the layout of the city of Jerusalem. We walked through Jaffa gate on the west, around upon the walls, and down at St. Stephen’s gate (where Stephen was taken out to be stoned in Acts 6-7) or the “Lion’s Gate” (because of four lions built into the walls of the Gate). We made our way throughout the city and eventually exited through the southern part of the city at Zion Gate and went to Mt. Zion to see the traditional burial place of King David. We did all this before lunch.

After lunch we had classes on the topography, geography, and growth of Jerusalem throughout history. The original city, under King David, isn’t even located within the walls of the city we have now. The walls of the city that we can see, dating to the Byzantine period, are closer to the way it was, though slightly smaller, when Harod was in charge… when Jesus was here. The oldest city of Jerusalem is just south east, outside the walls of the Old City on a little 10 acre hill.

After classes we had some free time. A few of us went out shopping in the new city. We ate some really awesome falafel and shwarma. The new city has a completely different feel than that of the Old City. It’s a lot more European and the shop keepers are a lot less pushy. It really gives you a more normal sampling of the culture and life of this place.

We’re Here

So, we made it! We’re all intact, our luggage is all accounted for, and the weather in Israel is beautiful. We have had a chance to settle in, here at JUC and a few of us have even already wondered in to the old city of Jerusalem. It is indescribably breathtaking, when you have spent the past four years or so studying about this place and it’s history, to gaze upon it with naked eyes. As we drove up the mountain from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and the Dome of the Rock emerged from behind the hills for just a moment before hiding again behind the city of Jerusalem, we all had a real sense of where we were.

JUC is just outside the old city walls, between the old city and the Valley of Hinom (or Gehenna which is mentioned several times in Scripture). Its’ architecture is beautiful with some walls dating back to the ancient city. Our rooms stay nice and cool because of the gigantic stone walls. We are all very impressed with the place and can’t wait to get started on real studying starting tomorrow with an organized walk through the old city together. As for today, some of us are catching up on lost sleep and some of us were too excited to sleep and just had to wonder in to the city. We are all traveling in groups so we’re very safe. Later tonight several of us have made plans to see the Wailing Wall.