Jordan!

Hi Everybody!

Saturday through Monday I went to Jordan for a trip in between class sessions. The highlight was definitely seeing Petra. First, we walked between huge stone walls on either side that we winded through for about a mile. Then the walls ended and opened up into a clearing with a treasury that was directly in front of us. The treasury is carved out of the face of a stone wall, with huge pillars. The inside is a single room, and the walls are perfectly smooth and pink and purple swirly colors that are natural from the stone. The treasury is actually used in the last Indiana Jones, so you should all go watch that movie and see how amazing it is. The rest of Petra is spread out throughout a section of the desert, kind of like a treasure hunt where we would hike through seemingly desolate areas and come across different carvings out of the stone cliffs. These would include caves that were carved out of the stone and served as houses, in clusters next to each other making up little bedouin communities. There would also be temples. It was really striking. We spent the whole day exploring this area, and ended it with camel rides!! The camels have blankets piled up on top of their humps and they kneel down so you can climb up on them. Its a bumpy ride and they have no sense of personal space! I thought I would run into the camels on either side of me multiple times! We had a group of six people, so we were our own caravan. Our guides were about fourteen years old! I also talked to one of the kids giving donkey rides, who was about ten years old. He told me that he was on his summer vacation for two months, during which he spent the day giving rides to people at Petra. At night he slept in one of the caves with five other people! Can imagine that life? So interesting. Our second night in Jordan we stayed at a really nice hotel, which was a lot of fun. There was a wedding while we were there, and we got to watch the bride walk down the staircase to Mid Eastern music and dancing! It looked really fun. Jordan had a really different feel than Israel and felt like more of a cultural adjustment. The food was different too...really good! We had lots of different courses, with flat bread, curries, fish, different hummus dishes, various salads. All in all it was a good experience, though a lot of driving.

Holocaust Museum, Israel Museum, Shiloh, Garden Tomb

July 2
Today we began the day at the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. The museum walks you through the events of the Holocaust chronologically, with pictures, artifacts, and video footage. It was so powerful to see actual things and people from this time; it made it really real. Here are a couple things I wrote down from the museum:

“When I grow up and get to be twenty, I’ll travel and see this world of plenty. In a bird with an engine I will sit myself down, take off and fly into space. Far above the ground. I’ll fly, I’ll cruise and soar up high above a world so lovely, into the sky.”
Written by Abramek Koplowicz who was murdered in Auschwitz at age fourteen.

“Even back there, in the shadow of the chimneys, in the breaks between pain, there was something resembling happiness…For me, the happiness there will always be the most memorable experience perhaps.”
Written by Imre Kertesz.

It was really moving to see that these two people retained hope even in such desperate situations. The museum had numerous journal entries from people who had written during the Holocaust. It also had artwork that was done, including one woman who was an art student and followed all the events through an illustrated play she wrote. It was amazing how well-preserved things were. The museum did such a good job of honoring the people involved.

After that we went to the Israel museum, which has a lot of ancient artifacts as well as dead sea scrolls. The Isaiah scroll was really impressive because it is fully intact. It was cool to see the way they sewed the scrolls together and how sturdy the papyrus paper was.

From there we went to Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant was held in the Bible. It was interesting because this site hasn’t been excavated at all and there wasn’t a church built over it to commemorate the biblical event. Instead it was just open space and was really windy.

We ended the day at the traditional site of the garden tomb, where Jesus was buried. My professor doesn’t think this an accurate location, but it was still interesting to see what a tomb looks like from around this time period. It was built into the stone of a wall, and was big enough to walk around inside upright. It had a ledge inside where the body would have been laid. The stone to guard the door wasn’t there anymore. The man who gave us the tour of this site was British and a Christian, which was kind of refreshing after being in such a Jewish world that doesn’t recognize Jesus’ life and resurrection as the Messiah.

This was the last day of tours for people who are only attending the first class, so it will be sad to see some of the friends I’ve made over the past three weeks go home. Tomorrow morning I leave for Jordan and then my second class, Jesus and His Times, beings!

Galilee Day Four

July 1
Today we went to Nazareth! We went to a church that commemorates the angel Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her she would give birth to Jesus. Both inside and outside the church are series of art pieces depicting Mary, done by countries all over the world. It was so interesting seeing how different cultures perceive Mary, and seeing Mary in all different ethnicities, clothing, and colors. I really enjoyed sitting in the church surrounded by all of these representations. The church was built in the 1960s so it is a more modern church.

We also went to Sepphoris, En Harod, and Scythopolis. It’s hard by the end of the day to even remember everything we’ve done! On our way home to Jerusalem we kept having to pull over because our bus was overheating! This would be in the middle of the desert, which is a different experience! At one of our sites it got up to 110 degrees. I have to keep reminding myself that this is only one of the seasons in Israel, so I can’t always read the Bible through the lens of a hot, dry summer. I guess during the winter it even snows here! And at other points there is a lot more greenery and growing things.

Galilee Day Three

June 30
Today we began our day with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. It took about an hour and was a really pretty ride. We ended up at a museum that has a boat that was found about ten to fifteen years ago that is from the first century. Some people found it when they were walking on the beach, and when they started digging it out they realized it was a fully intact ancient boat! They showed a video on how they had to be really careful because the wood would disintegrate when the air touched it. They had to keep spraying water on it to preserve it, then put it in this foamy stuff to float it out into the water, then picked it up with a crane to transport it to the museum. There was a guy there from USD who had been doing research on the boat for the last ten years. Wow.

We also went to the traditional site of the Mount of Beatitudes. I really enjoyed this stop because it was a beautiful garden on the hill with a more modern church. It was really peaceful and quiet. It was also nice to have variety from just seeing ancient ruins! Seeing a church fully in tact and functional is refreshing.

This was our last night at our hotel in Galilee. We had a Bible study on the beach, where one of the teachers talked about the biblical representations of the sea. He said the sea used to be perceived as evil, so in Jesus’ ministry he really gave a new idea of the sea and water. He talked about Jesus calming the storm because that would have happened on the Sea of Galilee, where we were!

Galilee Day Two

June 29
Today we began the day at Hazor, which is the largest Tel in Israel (200 acres). It is right next to Lebanon, so I could see Lebanon’s hills from where I was standing! The archaeologists there are looking for two archives from the 1800s and 1400s BC, which would be letters written on clay tablets. They would give all sorts of information from this time period, confirm things in the Bible, and enlighten our reading. The archaeologist who gave us our tour was very excited about this prospect.

Then we went to Dan, which was really green with streams of water. There was an inscription at the top that said “House of David,” which would be the first archaeological evidence of David ever to be found. One of the teachers in our group had written an article on this and was really passionate about it, so he got to speak about it. It’s amazing how these details can be so significant, and how scholars get so worked up about them!

Afterwards we went to Banias/Paneas, which had remains of pagan worship. One of the remains was the entrance to the underworld. Creepy. This was also the region where people believe the transfiguration happened. We also went to Golan and Qatzrin.

Galilee Day One

June 28

Today was our first day of the four-day Galilee field trip! Galilee is spectacular. We started at Caesarea, where Herod the Great had a palace right on the Mediterranean. The amphitheater is still there, as well as various other ruins such as his bathhouse and swimming pool, which is a stone inlet in the shallow part of the ocean. This was a place of entertainment, and I could totally envision people coming from all over to enjoy life there. It wouldn’t be too bad of a vacation spot even now ☺ From there we went to Mt. Carmel and Megiddo. We ended the day at the top of the Arbel Cliffs, where some people believe Jesus gave the great commission to his disciples. This would be a striking place for this event to take place because it has an amazing view overlooking lots of land. We climbed down the cliffs and hiked down the rest of the mountain, which was quite an experience! It’s been really good to push my limits and do things that are kind of scary and physically challenging. It’s also a unique opportunity to really engage with the land.

We arrived at our hotel later that evening, which is right on the Sea of Galilee! The Sea of Galilee looks like a big lake, so at night we can see straight across to the lights of Tiberias. The water is really warm, so we all went for a night swim right after dinner. I’m staying in a room with my roommate from JUC and two other girls that are a lot of fun. Again, the community here has been such a blessing.

June 25

Today was an exciting day with seeing Masada, swimming in the Dead Sea and in a fresh water pool, and going to Qumran.

Masada is where Zealots (Jewish rebels who were against Rome) held out against Rome after the Jewish revolt in 66 AD. Josephus writes about it in The Jewish War and the excavator Yigael Yadin confirms this history and brings it to life with his findings. In 72 AD the Roman procurator of Judea, Flavius Silva, tried to capture the Zealots living in Masada. After battling, the Zealots saw that they were going to lose. Rather than turning themselves over to captivity and slavery, they decided to kill themselves. When the Romans came to capture them, they found 960 dead.

When walking around Masada, we saw some of the ruins from when Herod owned Masada as his palace. We saw his Graeco-Roman bath complex, where there was a sauna heated by clay pots in the floor. When looking at Masada from a distance you can see three levels cut out of the mountain, making three terraces for Herod’s personal leisure.

After Masada we went to EnGedi where the Dead Sea is! The ground was so hot walking down to the water that I couldn’t go without shoes. Large red umbrellas were scattered on the sand with people lying under them in the shade, though unable to escape the heat. As I approached the water the ground turned into smooth rocks with a salty film over them. I could see rocks of salt where the water met the rocks, and covering the lifeguard’s paddleboard. I eagerly put my feet in the water, as quickly as I could get them off the scalding hot rocks. The water was refreshing, though it was probably 75 degrees. After wading through the shallow end I pushed my body into the water, and immediately began to float on my belly. I could stretch out my arms and extend my legs out of the water, all without sinking at all. We laughed at each other as we bobbed along, twisting around with very little effort. After a while the salt began burning my skin too much, so I braved the heat and rocks once again.

After lunch we hiked through another Wadi, though this time it led us to a beautiful fresh water pool under a waterfall. We all rushed into the water enthusiastically, this time in water that was actually cool and refreshing. Hiking into this area was dry and desert, but it slowly got greener and greener until we found this wonderful pool!

We concluded the day in Qumran. I didn’t realize it could get even hotter than it had been. I heard that it was 115 degrees in this area, and I don’t doubt it. Qumran is where an Essene community (a sect of Judaism that separated themselves from mainstream Jewish culture to be purified) collected scrolls and stored them in surrounding caves. 29% of the scrolls were the oldest remaining manuscripts of scripture that we have. Some of us hiked up to some of the caves, which involved climbing straight up a rocky mountain and looking around inside (its not the cave in the picture. That is cave four where the majority of the scrolls were found). The earth was really soft on the inside and it was smaller than I had imagined.

After Qumran we headed home to Jerusalem!