The Negev and Beyond (Day 2)

October 12, 2008
The day started at Tel Beersheva. Well, technically, it started at the youth hostel and then the shuk, but the information we’ll be tested on didn’t really begin to issue forth until we got to Beersheva (the tel). As a side note, I think that the breakfast at the hostel was more like a “typical” Israeli breakfast than what we have at the school. Not that they were so different, but the hostel had a few additions to what is usual for us.

Once at Beersheva, one of the first places we stopped was the well outside the city gate. We dropped a stone and tried to time how long it took to fall. I’m not sure how accurate our timing was (I think we figured about 3.5-4s). After that I was distracted for a while trying to figure out the depth of the well. I think I eventually came up with 81m. I re-calculated it just now and got more like 64m. I think it was mostly a matter of rounding errors. And, of course, it is dependant on how long the stone actually fell… At any rate, it is really quite deep.

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We spent some time talking about the syntax of a home, which is something I hadn’t thought about before. It makes sense, though, and it was interesting to hear of the syntax of a middle-eastern home. The front room is the guest room. Things get more intimate the further back you go.

We climbed to the look out tower and were able to see where the Beersheba and Hebron Wadis came together, right around the old city of Beersheva. Of course, they were both dry.

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After Beersheba we moved on to Arad, the location of an Early Bronze Age city and a later Israelite Fort. Arad is basically in the middle of nowhere, centrally located in a barren desert. It’s hard to imagine what possible purpose it could play. Yet it’s there that Narmer’s name was found on a potsherd. And an Israelite presence was apparently constant from the days of Solomon to the fall to Babylon. It was fun to see the wall with the semi-circular towers, just like we talked about in Archaeology.

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It’s really an amazing site – so huge! And so little water! The fort had a couple interesting aspects as well. The first is that over 100 ostraca were found in a small room, most of them relating to their defense against the Babylonians, if I remember correctly. The second item of interest (also possibly mentioned on one of the ostraca) was the “temple.” I suppose that we cannot be 100% sure that it was meant to be a temple, but its similarities to the temple in Jerusalem are striking. The “problem” that we have with this temple is two-fold. First of all, why is there a temple at all in a Jerusalem supported fort of Solomon’s time? Weren’t they supposed to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant resided? Was the building of other temples and altars and even “holy of holies” permitted? The second issue is the fact that there appear to be two standing stones and two incense altars in the Holy of Holies. Does this mean that the Israelites there were worshipping false gods in a Yahwistic temple? Was it for Yahweh and His “consort”? And if so, why was this allowed by Jerusalem? While we can’t say for sure, it does seem likely that there was a lot of syncretism in Judean culture, for which God is always calling them to repentance. It makes me wonder where we are syncretic with our beliefs.

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Following a lovely lunch at Arad we went to the Wadi Zin. It was a beautiful area. Not quite at lush as the Nahal Yehudia, but still quite green in the bottom. I suppose that without the built-in hand rails and walls it could be a really difficult and terrifying hike. As it was, it wasn’t bad. Such things do kinda tickle my funny bone, though. At any rate, it was a fun hike. I’m not sure that I would like to be wandering in that sort of landscape day and night for weeks, or months, or even years, as some of the Israelites did. But it was fun for an hour.

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The next place we visited was Avdat, the Nabatean city. Really, what the Nabateans did to live and even thrive in that area amazes me. It makes me wish that I could live up to such a challenge. They seem like the sort of people books are written about – Native Americans who can cross the American desert and find water (Louis L’Amour), the Sand People in Dune, etc. The ruins of their city were pretty amazing too. One of the largest wine presses in the country (HOW did they grow grapes here??). Two churches (many converted to Christianity at one point). And now they’ve faded away into nothingness, their secrets lost with them. That was a fun place to explore. I wish we had had more time. Really, as Matt said, you could draw this trip out from 3 to 5 days easily. There’s so much to see and learn.

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The last and possibly most spectacular stop of the day was at Makhtesh Ramon (also called the Super Bowl). I guess you could call it the Grand Canyon of Israel (except it’s a crater, not a canyon). I had heard many people talk about it, but had never been there myself, so I was excited to see it. It was amazing. Breath-taking. (I want to come back in the spring and see the flowers!) Looking out, Ada recited Psalm 90 for us. The first part talks a little about how God formed the earth. His work was “established” you could say. The Psalm ends with a request for us to see God’s glory in his work, and then adds a request that God would “establish” our work. Amazing thought, that.

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We came back to the modern city of Arad for the night. We’ll see what tomorrow holds!

Side note: today I finally found out why this school is called “Jerusalem University College.” (Hopefully I can recall it properly.) Apparently, back in the day, JUC was pretty international. People would come from Europe and associated countries. However, in places like that “institute” and “college” denote high school level, so there was confusion. On the other hand, they didn’t qualify as a University in the American sense because they weren’t broad enough. Thus, they took the title of “University College” to denote that they offer specialized undergraduate and graduate work.