Israel (Part 4)

         June 9th

Our last day in Jerusalem!

We started the day by going to Golgotha and the Garden Tomb. This area right outside the Old City and is now a park owned by the British. They have an organization called the Garden Tomb Association that runs the park and gives tours. Golgotha is Aramaic for "skull" or Greek for "calvary" and is the area where they believe Jesus was crucified. Our guide gave us 3 reasons why they believe Jesus was crucified here. One, is there is a "face" in the rock that resembles a skull and is the only one they know of around Jerusalem. Its kinda hard to tell in my pictures, but older photos of the rock show it even more.

two big holes are eyes, and nose beneath

The second reason is because the area below the rock is well-known as a place of death starting hundreds of years before Jesus. They would sometimes even use this area for stoning since it was outside the city. Basically, the Jews found this area acceptable for execution and death. The third reason is that Romans liked to put their crosses by the highway. This area was at the intersection of 2 roads, the main one connected Jericho to Jerusalem. The crosses would have actually been at the base of this rock, not on a hill as artists have portrayed the crucifixion.

After seeing Golgotha, we walked through the Garden where the Tomb is located. When this area was found, they uncovered a winepress that dates back to the time of Jesus. There was also a huge water cistern (holding approx 250,000 gallons) found. Both these findings confirm that this area was considered a garden in Jesus' time.

The tomb where Jesus was buried was owned by Joseph of Arimathea, who was a rich man and those with money would have tombs built that were custom made. This tomb show evidences of being custom, and is unfinished (as mentioned in the Bible). There is a cross engraved on the wall inside the tomb that is in Greek lettering saying that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega. There are 2 sides; the first room is where the body was prepared, and the other is for a body to be laid. There is a channel in front of the door where the stone would have sat and rolled into place. There is no way to 100% confirm that this was where the tomb Jesus was buried and then raised, but it would be difficult to find anything that matches better! 

We then had a special time of communion together before we left the garden. It was such a neat experience to see this whole area and be inside the tomb that is empty!

We then took a little bit of a drive in some areas outside Jerusalem. We drove through the Hills of Judea and saw stone watchtowers used by field owners to keep watch over their crops and to see when the fruit would be ripe. 

We also drove by a remnant of a Roman road from Biblical times. The steps were cut very small so that cart wheels could roll over them easily. Every mile or so, there was a hole dug in the ground so that when it rained, water would collect and horses and other animals were able to drink saving their owners from having to bring water for them on a long journey.

We then stopped at an area called Bet Gubrin (previously named Acropolis) where the largest columbarium (pigeon coop) was found. There are over 2000 pigeon coops carved into the stone. Next to this area, there are some really neat caves called bells caves because of their shape. The area used to be a rock quarry and at some point was used a shelter where early Christians hid from persecution.

The last stop before driving back to the city was the Road to Emmaus. Emmaus was known for producing good wine and many ancient wine presses were found by archaeologists. This area is mentioned in Luke 24:13 when Jesus appeared to some of the disciples as they were walking along this road. The spot where we stopped over looked the valley where Joshua told the sun to stand still in Joshua 10:12.

We ended the day back in Jerusalem doing some shopping at the Jewish Quarter!

Sadly, that was the last of our trip! We went back to the hotel to pack and eat dinner. Before we left we had to get a picture with our awesome tour guide!

We headed to the airport at 8pm and our flight out was at midnight. We finally made it back to Austin around 1130am. We were happy to be back home and beyond thankful for such an amazing and unforgettable trip!

Israel (Part 3)

Part 2 of our trip left off on June 7th (Sunday) about 3pm when we returned to the hotel to freshen up for our trip to Bethlehem.

One of the women on our trip, Ruth, is friends with the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem (Pastor Naim Khoury) and she supports both his and his son's ministry. She has gone on this trip to Israel many times, and at the beginning of our trip, she called Pastor Khoury to see if we could come visit his church. He of course said yes and invited our pastor Kie to preach! Since Bethlehem is Palestinian controlled, it is illegal for Israeli people to enter, so Avi was not able to join us. Thankfully, our bus driver had a special pass, so he was able to drive us there and back. 

When we first arrived at Bethlehem, we went to the shop of the Nissan family who have a large olive wood shop in Bethlehem as well as a small shop in Jerusalem, where they make all kinds of hand carved items. They are a Christian family who only hires Christian employees, so Kie said he tries to visit one of the shops on all his trips. 

After we had some time to shop (we bought a beautiful nativity!), Mr. Nissan's son took us on a little tour of the Church of the Nativity and of the town. He was a great guide! Some interesting facts about Bethlehem are: its only 4 miles from Jerusalem, it is now only 20% Christian (used to be 85%), King David and Jesus were born here (no evidence that they ever returned), and this is where Ruth and Naomi settled when they came back from Moab. 

 We were able to drive by the fields that Boaz owned, and our guide told us that the culture of gleaning (leaving some behind for the widows and poor) is still done today throughout Israel at harvest time.

These are the fields that Boaz owned and where the Angels appeared to the Shepherds!

The Church of the Nativity was originally built by Queen Helena (mother of Constantine) around 325 AD and has had a long history of being destroyed and rebuilt. It is currently under restoration until 2016. This is the traditional site where scholars believe Jesus was born. The current church is split 3 ways with parts belonging to the Catholics, Armenians, and Greek Orthodox. There is an underground cave area where they believe Jesus was born. The whole church is covered with religious decorations, which is interesting! 

the door is the tiny square to the right, is called a holy door b/c you have to "bow" when you enter

holy door

carvings that are being restored

where they think the birth happened

area where they think the manger was

marble floor from Helena's time

 These pictures are from the other side of the church where they believe the angel appeared to Joseph to tell him and Mary to flee to Egypt. In one of these rooms is where they found bones from children killed by Herod.

These next 2 are from the room where Jerome lived and translated the Bible into Latin (circa 382 AD). His translation is called the Latin Vulgate which the Catholics used for over 1000 years.

So after a fast and furious tour, we went to the First Baptist Church where we met Pastor Khoury and his wife and heard their testimonies. We then attended the evening service where Kie preached. It was a really neat experience hearing the sermon in both English and Arabic!

       

       June 8th

Today we spent the day out in the Judean Wilderness! This area was called the wilderness in the Bible, but today they just call it the desert. The desert begins only 2 miles from Jerusalem (at the bottom of the mountain), but it only gets 4 inches of rain per year vs the 24 inches that Jersusalem gets! The desert has several Bedouin settlements and also several new towns that have been built and are flourishing. 

Our first stop was En Gedi. We didnt actually stop here but drove through the area. En Gedi means eye of the gazelle. The caves in this area are where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 24) and also where David wrote Psalm 56.

Next we came to Masada. Masada was originally built as a fortress city of King Herod as it is a large plateau and very strong defensive position. It was considered almost invincible because it was so high (1200ft) on most sides, with the only vulnerable point being to the west. The main story from Masada is that it was used by Jewish Zealots who attempted to escape Roman persecution (circa 73 AD). Approx 960 people fled to Masada and lived here until the Romans came and found them. The Romans surrounded the hill and eventually broke through the gate by building a rampart on the west side (weak area) and burning through the defenses. After they broke through the gate, they went down that night to celebrate and were planning to come capture the fortress the next morning. However, Eleazar, the Jewish commander, gave a famous speech where he called upon the men to kill their wives, children, and then each other until the last man would then fall on his sword. Elazar wanted them all to die free vs become slaves to the Romans. It was from this speech that the modern Israeli Defense Force motto "Never Again" originated. So the people agreed, and when the Romans came up the next morning, they found everyone dead. The ruins of the city were pretty well intact since the Romans didn't need to plunder, and were only destroyed by earthquakes over the years.

model of masada

These walls are half original, half rebuilt, anything below the black line is original

view to the dead sea from the top

area where the storehouses for all the food were

storehouses (9 were recovered during excavation)

We were able to see an original Roman bath and walk through all the various chambers. They typically had 3 chambers (cold, lukewarm, hot) but this bath also had a "gossip chamber" before you entered where they would sit and eat, drink and talk.

original floor of outer courtyard

outer courtyard of bath

gossip chamber

bath the Jews built for immersion in the gossip chamber (for the ritual bath)

these stairs let to the cold chamber (fridgidarium)

leukwarm chamber (tepidarium)

hot chamber (cauldarium) had a 2 floors, they used special shoes to walk on it b/c it was so hot

pipes used to make steam in the room

ceiling of the hot chamber was sloped so when steam went up and turned back to water, it would run down the sides instead of dripping on people in the room

area where the furnaces to heat the hot chamber were

Next we went to the northern area of Masada where Herod built his palace. He built the palace in 3 levels and took advantage of the northern breeze to cool his palace. On the middle level there was a round structure with high walls and large windows. They would hang wet straw and then the air would come in the window and evaporate the water making cool air that would then go out through pipes onto the upper level (air conditioning!).

middle level 

model of the palace 

On the western side of Masada, we saw their huge water cistern where the water for the whole community was stored. When Herod first built Masada, he set up a pretty impressive aquaduct that would allow the water to flow from the brook at the base of the hill, through 12 different underground cisterns all the way up the hill to the one at the top.

water cistern

line of vegetation is the brook

model that showed how the aquaduct worked

These next 2 are the outlines of where the roman camps were, there were several that surrounded Masada

Masada of course had a synagogue, and archaeologists found a copy of Ezekiel 37 on a scroll in a chamber of this synagogue.

This next picture is of the Columbarium tower which is where they had their pigeon coops. The small squares you see are where the nests were, and the people used the pigeons for food, their poop for fertilizer, and their feathers for pillows and blankets.

This is the weak area (west side) that the Romans used to build a rampart and eventually break through the wall of Masada. (you can see the side view a few pictures earlier where I talked about the brook)

After leaving Masada, our next stop was Qumran. Qumran is approx 31 miles southeast of Jerusalem, and it where the dead sea scrolls were found. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd name Mohammad the Wolf was chasing one of his goats and the goat went into a cave. To scare the goat out of the cave, Mohammad threw a rock in, and when he did that, he heard the sound of something breaking, which turned out to be a clay jar with scrolls. He went in and found 24 of these clay jars full of scrolls. He then sold them to a Greek Orthodox church for $30. They exchanged hands a few more times and eventually Israel bought them back for a quarter of a million dollars in 1952. These scrolls kept really well because the desert has no humidity, and there were not bugs or other critters to eat the scrolls. They found parts and entire books of every book in the Old Testament except for Esther. They also found a lot of commentaries of various books of the Bible that were written by the people who lived in this area, the Essenes. In all of the caves they found a total of about 800 scrolls. This discovery was important because prior to these scrolls the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament only dated back 900-1000 years, and these were much older. When they compared these scrolls to the Old Testatment, they matched word for word.

caves where the scrolls were found

this area is prone to earthquakes, and the landscape is changing, so there may be more buried 

The Essene people were an interesting group of Jews that lived in this area and who wrote all these scrolls. They lived here from 200 BC-68 AD. The word Essene means puritan, and they were called this because they were so purely devoted to scripture. They came here from Jerusalem to study the Bible. They believed that the Judaism practiced in Jerusalem was corrupt so they came to separate themselves from the culture. The majority were men, but they did find evidence of a few women and children who lived here. They would either: farm, develop commentary and copy the scriptures, or read the scripture aloud to the men farming. The Essene people rejected the sacrifices and instead focused on a new covenant that they read about in Jeremiah. They were also apocalyptic and felt that the end of days would come in their lifetime. Yahad means "sons of light" and they referred to themselves both as sons of light and "the way." Another one of their customs was to baptize themselves by immersion daily. These people were destroyed in 68 AD and before they were destroyed, they hid all their scrolls of both the Bible and their commentaries in clay jars.

Our pastor Kie actually believes that John the Baptist was either a member of this Essene community or was heavily influenced by them because of several reasons: he lived in the desert according to Luke 1:8, he was an apocalyptic preacher, he taught about light and darkness, he baptized, and every gospel writer identifies John with the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 which is almost identical to the Essene motto of: "we are the voice of one crying in the wilderness make a straight path for the Lord."
Some pictures of the ruins of their town:

above ground aqueduct

We ended our day with a stop at the dead sea for a swim! The dead sea is the lowest land point on earth, and has not one single life form in the water. It is full of salt, as well as lots of other minerals like magnesium. The water color changes throughout the day from a lighter blue in the morning, to a darker blue later in the afternoon.There is a huge skin care company called Ahava that makes all kinds of products from the mud and water at the Dead Sea and I of course bought some!  Its crazy because you really do float even if you are trying not to!

Up next, the final day in Jerusalem before coming home!