Galilee, Day 4

October 28, 2008
Today was yet another full and rainy day. I’m so glad that it’s raining – the land needs it so badly. I’m also so glad that I’m staying here for a couple years so that I’ll have a chance to see some of these sites on clear days.

Today, besides being a day of rain, was also a day of mosaics. I don’t think I can even count all the different mosaics I saw today. Some well preserved, some not quite as well. Some spectacular in their coloring and precisions. Others, well, a bit more warped and amateur looking. All of them were pretty amazing.

The first stop of the day (not counting modern-day Kana where we got Pita for what ended up being our very late lunch) was Sepphoris (Zippori today). Sepphoris apparently was the location of a Jewish revolt of some sort right after the death of Herod the Great. Rome, of course, crush it and burned down the city in the process. They then turned right around and re-build the city. It was, after all, their capital in that region. It was being built, then, from around 4BC to 17AD or so. Notably, it is just across the way from Nazareth – a walk of a couple hours. Hmmm… Joseph was a carpenter who lived in Nazareth. A carpenter in those days probably worked in all sorts of materials – stone, wood, leather, metal. He would probably help specifically in laying foundations and making doors for houses, but could be involved in all aspects of a construction project. Nazareth was a pretty small town. It doesn’t seem likely that it would keep a carpenter occupied all the time. Maybe, just maybe Joseph and any apprentices he had (like a son, maybe?) headed over to Sepphoris to help rebuild it. This is, of course conjecture, which will likely never be proved or disproved. It is a reasonable conjecture, though. At very least it seems likely that Jesus was in Sepphoris on a number of occasions, even if he didn’t help build it.

Sepphoris was the first place today where we saw mosaics, and it also had the most spectacular ones. According to the informational video we watched, Sepphoris was the “Ornament of Galilee.” According to Dr. Wright, on part of a specific mosaic we saw is also referred to at the “Ornament of Galilee.” It was truly spectacular. What was it? Well, here’s another hint. It is also called “The Mona Lisa of Galilee.” As little as I know about art, I think that is an apt title. This lady is to mosaics what the DaVinci’s painting is to oil paintings. From a distance you can hardly tell that it is a mosaic – the colors and shading are so smooth. Most mosaics I’ve seen have things that are recognizable as faces but only barely. This looked almost alive. But enough gushing. The lady is part of a larger mosaic that was found in the remains of a triclinium.

The mosaics are from a time quite a while after the time of Christ, but still give us a lot of food for thought.

For one thing, Sepphoris was a mixture of Jewish and Gentile inhabitants. In fact, we can’t even tell which owned the house that contained this spectacular mosaic. The mosaic itself is very Greek in nature but we know that the Jews had to some extent “adopted” Greek culture. How do we know this? There is another fairly spectacular mosaic found at this site – in the remains of the synagogue. Not only that, but it has pictures of people and animals on it – graven images?! Not only that, but some of those people and animals are in the Zodiac wheel – the central mosaic of the floor. What would a Zodiac be doing in a Jewish synagogue? That’s a good topic for discussion.

Sepphoris also gives us another snapshot of what life was like in this region around the time of Christ. A lot of the remains are later, but the culture was still similar in many ways to that of the earlier time so we can gain insights. Did Jesus and his disciples eat the last supper in a triclinium? Does this mean that Judas was in the seat of honor beside Jesus?

Moving on, our next stop was Jezreel, the site of Ahab’s winter palace. Winter palace because it is warmer and drier than Samaria. So said Dr. Wright as it was pouring rain. Oh well, I suppose it has to rain there sometimes. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, but we did get a bit of a feel for the site in terms of its position along travel routes. Also, Seth and I wandered off a bit and took a trail that, in retrospect, maybe we should have rejected in favor of a more direct path back to the bus. It was really muddy and not all that interesting. Oh well, it was an adventure. J

Our plans were modified a bit because of the rain, so our next stop was the Kibbutz Beth Alpha. It was sometime in 1928, just when the Kibbutz was starting, that they were plowing a field or something and uncovered another mosaic. Again, it was the floor of a synagogue, and again it contained a Zodiac wheel. In fact, there are 6 synagogues from around this time that have been discovered with a Zodiac mosaic. This one was not nearly as sophisticated as the one at Sepphoris, but it was much more completely. I don’t think there were really any parts of it missing, which is pretty amazing preservation.

The final stop (which, finally, included lunch) was at Beth Shean. This was another highly anticipated site for me. It has been mentioned numerous times in almost all of my classes. The tell itself has 21 layers including Egyptian, Israelite, and Canaanite remains. And then there is the bottom of the tel – where the city moved to in Roman times (renamed Scythopolis). It is truly a spectacular site. It was a fairly major city up until 749AD when it was devastated by a large earthquake. Hundreds of pillars toppled and were found as they lay – all in rows. It was one of the 10 cities of the Decapolis – the only one on the west side of the Jordan River. Looking at travel routes, we can be fairly certain that Jesus and his disciples visited it a time or two. It also had numerous mosaics, as well as spectacular colonnaded streets,

a large theatre, a bridge, temples, market places, bath houses, and, of course, a public latrine. (Who thinks of these things?!) We had about an hour to explore the site, but it’s never enough. We did have probably the best view of the trip from on top of the tell. The clouds had cleared off a bit and it wasn’t hazy, enabling us to actually see things.

(Looking down into the rift valley here. You can see the Jabbok cut the transjordan mountains in the right side of the picture.)

When I heard that the town was destroyed in 749AD, I thought something along the lines of “Wow, that was really recent.” And then I remembered that that was still about 1000 years before America was even founded. But compared to most of the times we talk about here, that was really recent.

I also think it is ironic that the general rule seems to be that the “spectacularness” of a site today (state of preservation, cool looking mosaics and columns and such) is inversely related to its Biblical significance. This isn’t totally true, but most of the cool looking ruins are from a time after the Bible was written, and most of the remains from the time of the Bible are mud brick that, to me at least, is barely distinguishable from the dirt around it. Oh well. I’m learning to appreciate the mud brick. Though I still enjoy seeing columns and mosaics. J I guess Beth Shean has the best of both worlds.

(This is the remains of a bridge at Scythopolis.)

More ruins at Scythopolis...

On this trip we have also gotten lots of experience in public bathrooms. Almost all of the ones we’ve stopped at I would rate as being above the public latrine at Beth Shean. The one at Sepphoris was really quite nice.