Return to Calvary

This last Wednesday I joined the "Church in the East" class on their field study to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, or the Church of the Resurrection as Petra, the teacher of the class, prefers to call it.  

 

To us evangelical westerners, this ancient and eastern church can be a very alien place.  Petra's love and passion for this church, all its history, and all that it stands for, gives a much needed glimpse at the true nature of the church.  

The history of the church itself is fascinating, dating back roughly to the 4th century and the time of Helena.  It currently houses seven denominations, if I remember correctly.  (Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, and Coptic, for starters).  I think the flag below may be the Armenian's.

It's been added to and subtracted from, depending on who was in charge at the time (Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, etc.) and how much money they had.  And now, over a thousand years after it was built, Christians from all over the world still journey here to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord.

 There is meaning and symbolism in everything.

 In every little detail carved in stone, or laid in mosaics.

There are layers of history in every room, carved into every stone.  (These crosses are left as "holy graffiti" from visitors, for ages past.)

 

We looked at the dome over the tomb, a relatively recent addition/repair.  The design was done by an American protestant.  Just another way this place brings all denominations together.

I also got to see the area under the main dome for the first time - it's always been roped off when I'd been there before.  Jerusalem has been known as the "navel of the world" and the temple was considered the navel of the navel.  When Christianity took over the area, someone (Jerome or Origen, I think) suggested that the navel was now centered between the cross and the tomb, under this very dome.  

 

 Reminders of the story of Christ are everywhere.  It's a good place to go to think and remember.

 The last place we visited what Helen's Cistern.  I hadn't been there before.  It had great acoustics and a boat.  

Of course, when entering or leaving the church, one cannot fail to notice the mosques, squeezing in about it.

or the lovely signs posted on them.  

 For all that, the church still endures.  Maranatha!

First Field Study

 Saturday morning, a week ago, a small group of us were on the bus, bright an early, headed for the Judean Wilderness and two Herodian fortresses.  No, not the famous ones: Masada and the Herodium.  We were headed to two fortresses that most people will have never heard of: Hyrcania and Cypros.  

 

After we headed under the Mount of Olives and zoomed eastward, descending into the valley of the Dead Sea, green hills flashed by.  After a winter of record rainfall, the Judean wilderness was more green than I had ever seen it.  Green, and part of it, purple with wildflowers.  

 

I was on the wrong side of the bus to get very good pictures of the purple...but hopefully you can get an idea with these pictures.  It was pretty spectacular.  

We took a turn off Highway 1 at three signs that pointed to "An Nabi Musa," "Hureqanya," and "Wadi Og."  

We paused first at the bridge over the Wadi Og/Wadi Mukalik.  The last time I had been there, it was filled with water, rushing down from the hills near Jerusalem where it was raining.  This time there was no rain, and the wadi bottom was as dry as ever.  

Our next stop was one of the three small Iron Age sites in the Buqei'a Valley.  

Joshua 15:61-62 mentions six cities "in the wilderness:"   Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah, 

and Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and En-gedi.  We are more or less sure where three of those are: Beth-arabah, the City of Salt, and En-gedi are almost certainly near the Dead Sea.  Middin, Secacah, and Nibshan, on the other hand, are virtually unknown.  However, there are these three Iron Age sites which may fit the bill.  So we paused at the middle one.  If you have a map where they are labeled, it's probably labeled as "Secacah."

 It was excavated once in the 70's, before the Buqei'a became a place for the Israeli army to play war games.  We are standing here on the remains of the city wall.

We had a little free time to explore the site and we found some nice...

 ...wait, THAT'S not Iron Age pottery.

We took our bus a little bit further down the road before starting on of first major hike of the day: to Hyrcania.

 It's wonderful to find flowers in the wilderness (the hill of Hyrcania is in the background, to the left.)  Their beauty is not only refreshing in a barren wilderness, but serves as a poignant reminder of the truths of scripture:

A voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its grace as the flower of the field!  The grass withers, the flower fades because the Spirit of Jehovah blows on it. Surely the people is grass.  The grass withers; the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall rise forever. 
~Isaiah 40:6-8

 We got closer....but it was still a hike.

 Once we got to the top we found bits of glass and looked at maps and read from Josephus.  We learned that Hyrcania was named after a Hasmonean king, and had been a fortress before Herod got to it.  Long after the time of Herod it became a monastery, and monks dwelt there even into the 1920's.

 Then we hiked back down on a beautiful grassy hill...again, more grass than I'd seen in this area.

 We delved into the tunnels, made famous by the copper scroll and Bob the pilot.

 We paused for lunch at An Nabi Musa, a Muslim monastery and the first stop on the pilgrim route from Jerusalem to Mecca.  It is named after Moses, and claims to have his tomb (the tomb in question dates to a much later time), but it was a nice place to eat lunch.

This is the view inside:

 And the view outside.  A lot of Muslim graves, and "Moses" tomb on top of the hill.

After lunch we continued down into the Jordan Valley and stopped by the New Testament site of Jericho, heading to Cypros.  This fortress had be built by Herod and named after his mother, a Nabatean princess.

There was still some water in the Wadi Qelt from recent rains, and we enjoyed the sound of running water as we hiked along it.

 

At one point the water grew especially loud.  Somehow, large amounts of water had escaped the aqueduct that also ran along the wadi, and it was running free along the road.  It watered the roots of this tree and reminded us of the man in Psalm 1.

As we approached the top of Cypros (which had housed an Israeli army base at one point) we found that the bunker tunnels that we normally entered through had collapsed.  We found a way over.  

 And then we spent some time on top looking studious.

After a good view of Jericho on top (including the Old and New Testament sites) and a good lesson and more reading from Josephus we found a different way down.

We walked along the wadi further and over looked the St. George's Monastery.  Unfortunately, by then, my camera batteries were dead.  For pictures you'll have to look back in time at a former post.  

Dr. Wright decided it was a good day  for ice cream, and we had a little extra time, so we paused in Jericho at a little, brightly colored store, and all got a scoop of ice cream.

 

All in all, it's one of my favorite field studies (and the third time I'd gone).  We came home exhausted, but happy to have seen some rarer places, off the regular tourist route.  

Snow Day in Jerusalem

Friday  morning I woke up to this sight on my way to the bathroom:

And these sights:

Of course I had to go put my foot in it,

and make a snowball.  

Later that morning it started snowing heavily.

This is the picture of "hell" frozen over...

I wanted to go sledding on the roof.

 Through the swirling snow we caught a glimpse of a small snowman.

 But it wasn't long before the snow stopped and the sun came out.

 Poor little snowman (and his miniature companion that I quickly constructed) didn't last too long...

 It's kind of fun to see the snow on "tropical" plants.

I guess I brought some snow with me from Montana this time.