Jezreel, Megiddo, Caesarea – Israel Day 9

 

Last day – one that would include Armageddon!

 

But before we begin, remember the first day, when I talked about Abu Ghosh? This is the site of the Road to Emmaus and also where David danced before the Lord. We now have the video up for that. It is beautiful. It’s here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDZpRy9JGFc

 

Also, more of the videos from the trip are now, finally, getting posted, at:

 

http://www.youtube.com/imot2013 Click on Browse videos to see the list.

 

Back to Day 9:

 

Omer Eshel, our kind host and the Israeli Consul in Chicago, grew up in the Jezreel Valley of Israel. This is north of Jerusalem and just a little west and south of the Sea of Galilee. He was a farmer there.

 

Open up your Bible and read 1 Samuel 31. This valley is where it took place. The Philistines were camped over to the west  where the white houses are now. Saul and his men were straight ahead, in this view. He was outnumbered perhaps 20 to 1, so he consulted the witch of Endor. Really bad idea.

 



 

Endor is a small town, also in this valley straight ahead. You can read about this in 1 Samuel 28.

 

When Saul learned he was going to die, he fled to Mount Gilboa, in the same valley, to the east (right). It should be called “Hill” Gilboa, because it isn’t really very high, though it is steep.  It’s the hill you can see just behind the two bushes. Here the Philistines caught up with Saul, so he killed himself.

 

Also in this valley, off to the left, is Tel Megiddo. There is a high fortress there whose origins date back to 7000 BC. It is the place of history’s first fully recorded battle, in 1479 BC, between Egypt’s King Thutmose III and a group of Canaanite kings. Solomon built a fortified city here (1 Kings 9:15), and countless battles were fought here over thousands of years, including even Napoleon. Parts of the many layers of fortress remain.

 

The gate into the city shows partly how defended it was.

 

The small rooms to each side of the entrance could hold soldiers who would attack invaders. A drawing of the city gate shows a section of the entrance.

 

 

You can see how far above the valley this fortress-city was. The highway you see down below has been the main route through this part of Israel for thousands of years.

 

 

 

One of the features of this walled city was its storage facilities.

 

 

 

Chief among them is its grain silo.

 

 

 

You can see that there was a downward path around the edge of the silo, so someone could walk down inside to either store or retrieve grain. There were actually two of these staircases, one on either side of the silo, so many people could head down, collect grain, and head back up the other side, without getting in each other’s way.

 

 

It is also where the Bible describes the final battle between good and evil. Tel Megiddo has been mispronounced and is in Revelation as “Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16).

 

Finally we went to Caesarea Maritima, a city that Herod the Great built on the Mediterranean, between 25 and 13 BC, both as a retreat (like another he built in Masada) and also to give Israel a port. The scale is unbelievably massive. There is a huge amphitheater there that is reminiscent of large outdoor theaters today. Even the entrances are huge.

 

 

 

The amphitheater itself can seat 10,000, and is used again today for big concerts. 

 

 

 

 Further down along the coast is a huge swimming pool, which originally had inlaid mosaic floors all around.

 

 

 

For many years, those who doubted the Bible accounts also denied that anyone named Pontius Pilate ever existed. They said there was no record of him in Roman history, and therefore he was a Christian fiction. But in Caesarea, archeologists found a stone there inscribed, “Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judaea, erected a building dedicated to the emperor Tiberius.” Bible wins again!

 

There was also a huge race track for chariot races.  There were also countless buildings surrounding the city as stores, warehouses and homes. The scale on all of this was massive, and the finish on it quite refined and beautiful.   

They had all of the modern conveniences, though this one was the

most surprising.

 

 

 

Finally we took one last picture of all of us together on this grand tour. It was a delight and I made lifelong friends. You will too!

 

 

 

Best of all, I got to see my Bible come to life! I’m still HAPPY from the trip.

 

Start planning your pilgrimage now. We’ll all go together.

 

-Pastor George

 

Capernaum, Zippori, Nazareth, St Josephs – Israel Day 8

This was a VERY full day and included some genuine surprises – things about the life of Jesus and his mother that I’d never even heard, and elements of daily life in the time of Jesus that will rock you back on your heels!

We started in Capernaum. This is the hometown of Peter, and a place where Jesus lived (Matthew 4:13). It is north of Jerusalem, on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. This is the site of St Peter’s Basilica, a church built above the ruins of Peter’s own home.

 

 

If you look at the center of the church you can see a black railing surrounding glass windows in the floor. If you look down through these windows, you can see the walls of what was once Peter’s house.

 

 

 Until recently, this view didn’t exist, but there was a church here that “tradition” said had been built above Peter’s home. Some foundation problems required excavation beneath it, and back in the 1980s the house was found. It had plaster walls (implying it had been fixed up for meetings), fishing gear going back 2000 years, and early Christian graffiti. Even the secular archeologists concluded it was indeed Peter’s home.

 

The gospels report that Capernaum was also the home of James, John, Andrew and Matthew! It was the main place of Jesus’ ministry after he left Nazareth, and is where he healed Peter’s mother-in-law, the servant of a Roman centurion, and the paralytic lowered through the roof for healing.

 

 

 

 

The local synagogue is just a few feet from Peter’s home and the remains of many other homes can be seen in the distance between the synagogue and Peter’s home.

 

 

“They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.... As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up.” (Mark 1:21-22, 29-30)

Here’s a diagram of what the synagogue looked like.  This synagogue is one of my favorite places in Israel.
 

 

 
 

Next we went to Zippori. Ever hear of it? It’s not in the Bible. It has only recently been excavated. But it is likely that Joseph and Jesus both worked here. It was a huge city just a couple of miles from Nazareth. Nazareth at the time was a tiny village with perhaps 6-8 buildings and a small population. Zippori was the home of Mary and her parents, traditionally Joachim and Anna. Joachim was apparently the rabbi of the synagogue there, and it could well be where Joseph met her.

 

Here’s a model of what the city looked like after Herod Antipas renovated and expanded it, making it his capital city until perhaps 18 AD.  It would not be surprising if both Joseph and Jesus worked on the building of the city: the timing is right, their skills were right, and they lived nearby.

 

It contained a huge main market, a theater that sat 4-5,000 people, and a luxurious residence at the apex. The main street (the Cardo) followed Roman norms for design (like the one in Jerusalem several days ago). It ran north-south, had a wide center road for vehicles, and a wide covered sidewalk on each side, with many stores. It was an ancient outdoor covered mall!

 
At right angles to the Cardo was the Decumanus Maximus, the large street that ran east-west. Click the picture to see it in detail. In the center is the road for vehicles, and on either side are sidewalk inlaid with mosaic tiles (about 1” square each), and large columns that supported the roof over the sidewalk. Lining the sidewalk were many stores. 

 

 

 

One of the stores was the mosaic tile store , and it had several rooms of sample mosaic floors that local home owners could see before they ordered.

These could also include artistic designs or custom designs.

 

 

 

 

Also present in one corner of the mall was a map of the mall! If you look carefully, you can see symbols that indicate the kinds of stores. One of the symbols is for woodworking (just below and to the left of the two ugly brown spots toward the bottom right). This could have been Joseph’s store, or a co-op store for many local carpenters.

 

The theater  could seat up to 5000, and the stage was 156x27 feet.  I crawled underneath it (not a common tourist spot) and found the area that used to be dressing rooms and work areas for actors and stagehands.

 

 

 

 

Up above the theater and overlooking the whole town was a magnificent residence. It was built after the time of Jesus but well reflected the importance of the city. It even included a flush toilet with an inscription in the mosaic floor that says, “God bless you.”

 

 

 

The main living room had a complex and detailed mosaic floor (perhaps purchased from the mall store?) with one especially beautiful woman’s face, nicknamed the “Mona Lisa of Zippori.”

 

 

 

Down the hill a bit from this residence and the theater was the synagogue. Though the remains that are there now are probably slightly later than Jesus’ time  it is believed that Mary’s father was the local rabbi of the synagogue.

 

Zippori was a thriving international city, with strong Greek and Roman culture mixed with the local Jewish population. Jesus would have been exposed to the best and the worst of all of this from a very young age.

Zippori later became the home of the Sanhedrin and was the place where the Mishnah was canonized.

Finally we went to Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus. In his day it was tiny, but today it is quite a large city with both Arab and Jewish residents. Both are Israeli citizens. The Arabs are divided between Christians and Muslims, and all live together, though with some tensions.

Nazareth has a huge church that is traditionally the site of the annunciation to Mary by the angel that she would bear a son.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the church is a small altar and grotto where this was believed to have taken place.

 

 

 

 

 

 Up above on a second level – some 30 feet higher – is a huge new church built from funds raised all over the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Each contributing country also gave a huge painting or sculpture to adorn the walls.The United States produced one of Mary, celebrating her immaculate conception.


 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting the Basilica, we went over to the Greek Orthodox church of St Joseph. Elections were underway in Israel, and so there were political banners for candidates everywhere. We even saw a car with a sign and a blaring loudspeaker advertising the local Communist Party candidates. Across the street from St Joseph’s we saw their headquarters, and they had a drum corps out in front, pounding away noisily. They did not succeed in the elections.  

St Josephs Greek Orthodox church is very plain on the outside.

 

 

Inside was another story: It was complex and beautiful, with every square inch covered with carving or art.

 

 

 

 

 

Even the ceiling was detailed extensively with scenes from scripture, and there were ornate chandeliers and a carved pulpit.

 

 

 

 

Finally we headed off to dinner under the crescent moon.

 

 

One day yet to go on this amazing journey!

 

-Pastor George

 

The Jordan River, Galilee – Israel Day 7!

In case you hadn’t figured it out, I’m back from Israel and completing the last few blogs from home. Time, links and neuron shortage made finishing the task while on the road impossible, but I am still just as thrilled as I was while still in Israel, and I’m itching to get back – with you along!

We headed out to the Jordan on the morning of day 7, and I found the bus a little slow, so I switched my method of transportation to a “ship of the desert.”

 

 

This was really fun, and it is very high up! Here’s a close up of this beauty.

 

When we reached the Jordan we had a big surprise in store. Normally it is an oversized stream, and in many places you can wade across it with the water below your waist, or even below your knees. This has been especially true in recent years with the extended drought Israel has had. But this year the rains and the snow reversed the drought, the Sea of Galilee is high, and the Jordan – fed by the Sea – is VERY high, nearly at flood stage. Here you can see that it is up at its boundaries, where even the stubby palm trees are underwater
up to their leaves.

 

 

 Several years ago, when the Galilee was very low, some local fishermen came across the ruins of an ancient fishing boat buried in the mud at the edge of the Sea. The Israeli Antiquities Authority, with a complex and careful process, was able to salvage it intact, and it is now on display at the edge of the Sea. This is typical of the kind of boat used in Jesus’ day. It could even be the one from which he commanded the Sea to be still (Mark 4:35), or from which the disciples caught 153 fish after his resurrection (see John 21).

 

 

 

Fishermen in those days typically used a large, weighted net to capture their fish. It was a large circle, with weights on the edge, and a rope tied to the center. They tossed it as a big circle on top of the water, and as the weights sank, they gathered the net closed. Here a modern version of this net is tossed from the boat we rode out on to the Sea. This is a wonderful and beautiful journey.

 

Karl Clauson, the radio host on WYLL 1160 AM, weekdays 4-6 PM, and our co-host on this trip, used to be a commercial fisherman in Alaska, so this ride was especially gratifying for him as a believer. He struck up an immediate friendship with the folks who owned the boat we were on, and by the end of the journey he was the pilot!  The sun was setting so the light is a bit low on this shot.

 

Before we went in at the end of the day, I snapped this wonderful sunset with a bird soaring above us. You just simply have to come to the Sea of Galilee and experience this beauty!

 

 

-Pastor George