Summarizing Samaria

Impression Report 5

Ephraim and Manasseh

Andrew Sharp

9/29/13
[Edits and additions in brackets by Alana.]

            First the fortress temple at Shechem. Namely Shechem the town / fortress /  rubble heap. Kinda got built and destroyed a bunch. Built in a valley. Not exactly standing to this day. Mentioned how Abraham went to “the place of Shechem” and that maybe(likely?) it was destroyed at the time of his visit, a pile of rubble and ruins. Quite likely true if you have a conservative date for Abraham, then his visit lies in a period of time that the location was thought to be abandoned according to archaeological work.

            The place got beat up a lot. After all Shechem lies in the more northern reaches of the Promised Land, the section that was quite more traveled. Being near major routes was great for commerce, but made the keeping of the funds it generated, nearly impossible. Why? Because every time a nation went on the war path (literally) it didn't look like a real bad option to go loot Shechem, because after all, this “mouse hole” of a land wasn't as hard to defeat as major nations like Egypt or Syria, so why not just go ransack the Levant and loot it?

            Next we talked about how Jacob went to Shechem and how his kids kinda screwed things up and how Jacob did too, and how social conventions of the day made things a bit more complicated to understand than the text explains. How dads kind of need to be men and lead rather than ignore and overlook problems in the family. Kind of a running theme between the events at Shechem for Jacob and the events surrounding the rape of Tamar in the time of king David.

            To let a woman in your household be dishonored or damaged is to take dishonor to your family's name, and something must be done to fix that. Neither Jacob nor David did. They seemed to overlook the issue. Jacob's sons didn't. They told the “rapist” (even if perhaps it was consensual sex, because the term translated “rape” here also means “to dishonor her” so we can't be sure it was rape) that if he didn't get circumcised, along with all of the town, then Shechem (the man) could not have their sister in marriage. They then used their time of healing to slaughter all of them to redeem their sister's honor (whether she wanted it or not). Not too long after, seeing that dad has been no help and isn't taking his “head of household” job seriously, [Rueben] sleeps with his dad's concubine so as to raise himself up as the oldest and “take the job” so to speak. Humans are nuts.

            After that lovely piece of information we discussed Joshua and his building an altar to God in Mount Ebal. Which is next to Shechem, opposite Mount Gerezim. The whole place is actually laid out in such a fashion that to the east things go down into a bit of a valley, and to the north, south, are the two mountains and to the west things are kind of hilly. Shaped almost like a culdesac. Which makes sense and is perfect for the story of how the Israelites stood on both mountains and spoke curses and blessings to the people from them. They aren't far from each other, and it's not unlikely that in more rural times, (like at the time of the story) you could probably hear someone speaking loudly from the base of one mountain, and hear another person in reply on the other.

            We discussed Rehoboam  and his going to Shechem to be crowned king of Israel. That this location was often chosen for [corronations?]

           We went to Jacob's well. Drank well water. Tasted welly. Talked about how in John 4 when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well, it was likely this well, and that it was and is quite deep. Like 30 feet wouldn't likely be an exaggeration.

           






Then we went to Samaria[/Sebaste]. Home of the Samaritans [edit: technically, modern day Samaritans live on Mount Gerizim, where we also visited, and on the outskirts of Tel-Aviv.  Samaria/Sebaste was the capital of Omri and Ahab's kingdom...and was also later built up by Herod the Great], go fig. North west of Shechem. Great view. Had lunch. Took pictures in wedding dining room thingy at restaurant.

  

            Went to Shiloh. Saw some pretty cool mosaics, but didn't quite make time to go see them up close. Stood in the approximate location the tabernacle may have stood in Shiloh. Why would Shiloh be a good place to choose for your cultic center?

Andrew makes his way up the hill from a possible location of the Tabernacle below.  

[I would just like to add this picture of a wolf on a bicycle.  These things are all over Shiloh for some reason.... I suppose they're pointing out biking trails, but really, why a wolf?  One of the worst nightmares I remember as a child involved wolves on bicycles...and no, I'm not joking.  So, I guess, in some way, these signs are a dream come true?]

Bouncing through Benjamin

Impression Report 4

Land of Benjamin

9/22/13

            Benjamin, or as Jacob called him a “ravenous wolf” became a people of in-between places. The inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin is a belt of land that lies in the middle of the land of Israel just to the north of the dead sea and crossing from east to west through the mountains between the coastal plain and the rift valley. It's here that much of the most important roads meet. For those living in the mountains, the easiest way out of the valleys and ridges is to travel either east to Jericho or west toward Gaza. Of the two, Gaza would be a more beautiful choice. We began our day looking to the east, over wadi Qelt. A big, desolate, dry, and quiet set of valleys creating the branching network leading down and out toward the dead sea just past Jericho. This truly is a wilderness, once one crosses the watershed ridge and steps into the rain shadow in the east, the green hills change to dust very quickly. It was this wadi that we walked down today, seeing just how long a trip some of the wadi could take, even going downhill almost the whole way.

            One notable thing we discussed on this trip was Deuteronomy 32:10 that says “...He kept him as the apple of his eye.” which also means the pupil of his eye. And we talked about God looks closely at us and because of Jesus He sees Himself in us. When we look closely into God's eyes we see our own reflection there, we see ourselves as we truly are, fallen, broken, but mercifully allowed to be His sons and daughters. It was an interesting and beautiful image.

            As we descended we also passed by some wild Rock Hyraxes, or Rock badgers, reminding me of the Proverb that says “The rock badgers are a feeble folk, Yet they make their homes in the crags” speaking of the wisdom exhibited by some creatures here on earth. The Proverb in chapter 30 verses 24 through 28 says “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks (a wise and safely guarded place); The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all by rank (speaking of locust swarms moving as a single swarm); The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” An interesting and more current translation for the final line renders it “the lizard can be grasped in the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces,” which is the very state of things here at JUC. Not many spiders have I seen here on campus, but geckos and small lizards I have.

            As we finished our descent we landed in the area of Jericho, but specifically we went to one of King Herod's palaces, right there at the bottom of the canyon mouth, where the water funneling down the wadi would have run past. It was here that we stopped and considered the vast wealth accrued by Herod. Here that we discussed how some places had tax rates as high as 80 percent, partly out of greed, and partly because it's difficult to rebel against your ruler when you're spending every moment you can trying as hard as you can just to survive, just to feed your family.

            With that poverty in mind we also discussed Zacchaeus and the taxing system. Often times the way the taxes worked was Kingpin 1 would say this region should bring me 500 coin, and the region administrator in charge of giving him those funds would tell his city heads they all owe him a total of 600 coin, and the city heads would tell their tax men they needed to gather him 650 coin and so each of those tax men would tell each individual they owed so much of that 650 plus whatever the tax man took for himself as pay. So each person along the chain would get his own slice. But also increasing by quite a bit, the total taxes taken from the people. This can explain why Zacchaeus would have been so very rich. It also would have explained why he was so very hated too. He was one of the men responsible for the extreme poverty in his region, and he clearly was benefiting from it.

            Next we went to the actual Tel where old Jericho once stood and saw some old mud bricks and stone walls. The old wall and tower unearthed there is thought to be pieces of the oldest city on earth.

           It was after this that we took the bus all the way back up towards the central Benjamin plateau, the largest, flattest part of Benjamin's land where the majority of agricultural work would have taken place.
And we followed approximately the same route that Joshua and the Israelite warriors would have taken when going up to battle at Gibeon. Marching all night from Jericho, uphill, in dry dusty conditions to start a battle, the longest battle of history, for God listened to Joshua and made the sun and moon stand still in the sky while they chased their enemy from Gibeon all the way down the Beth-Horon ridge route out to the west, then south down to Azekah. Not a short trip at all. In fact the trip as a whole should have taken them about 4 days, sleeping at night and marching all day. But the Lord helped them in the battle and they fought for many, many, many hours and chased their enemy no less than 19 miles before returning all the way back to Gilgal near Jericho. Traveling a distance about as long (in total) as the journey from the northern end of the Dead Sea, straight west to the coast. Yet more difficult for the terrain they traveled was all in the hills, not the easy straight lines of the plains near the coast.

            On our ride up to the plain we went past many Bedouin encampments and stopped to look at the soil. Some of it was alluvial, composed of both Senonian(rendzina) and Cenomanian(tera rosa) derived soils. It was rather clay like, and best suited to farming crops that had strong enough roots to penetrate through the clay nature of the soil. Sand added to the clay helps to break it down some, but in the end, the soil there was only so useful. Some Bedouin were preparing the soil for planting of the winter wheat and barley.

We paused to examine some of the dirt of the region and found a boundary marker. Andrew likes taking pictures of Alana taking pictures. 

            We also passed (as typical for Israel) many olive orchards. And saw in the distance a stone quarry, which is also expected since concrete and stone are the most common tools of construction here.

            After we went to the lookout at Nebi Samwill we had a very good idea of the Benjamin plateau's size and geography, being able to see the majority of it at once.

From there we went to tel Gezer where we could barely see the ocean, and on the other side we could see the hills we had just come out from. We also looked at the six chamber Solomonic gate. And I was announced king of Hawaii who married Alana princess of Montana so that our countries would have beneficial trade agreements. And how I would have erected an embassy for her country which would have been a temple to worship her Montanan god Yeti.

Crowning Andrew King of Hawaii

Bowling

I know it seems like it from my blog posts, but we don't ONLY go on field studies here at JUC.  Various other activities fill our lives, both mundane and unusual, all filled with the foreign familiarity of life here.  A recent activity that we joined in with other students was bowling.

I am not a big bowler.  There have been times when I've been lucky to have a final score in the double digits, shamefully enough.  So when I'm thinking of fun things to do, bowling pretty much never even makes my list, much less gets to the top.  This is doubly true in Israel, where, hey, do they even HAVE bowling alleys?

So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself at a bowling alley, here in Israel...not once but TWICE in the last few months.

It turns out that, yes, they DO have bowling here.

Now, I have to admit, I have no idea what state bowling is in back in America.  Like I said, I rarely frequent bowling alleys, and I think the last one I was at is a tiny one in Big Timber, Montana: six lanes, dark, smokey...  And what I can remember of bowling lanes from my youth (when it was considered a treat to go on a field trip to go bowling) is much the same: dark and smokey (if not always quite as tiny.)  And, of course, having to rent rather gross shoes, worn by who knows how many other people, which never fit quite right.  And having to go pick out a ball from the myriad of mostly black but occasionally colored, shiny balls in racks along the wall.

This is not exactly the state of bowling in Israel.

For one thing, instead of the dark, smokey, wood-paneled basement-type areas I seem to remember, Israel favors brightly colored paint jobs.  And one of the bowling alleys I went to was actually up stairs about 3 flights.  Who puts a bowling alley on a roof?  Just seems odd.

For another thing, the computers that keep track of score now have cutsie little animations that either celebrate you getting a spare or a strike, or mock you for your inability to do so:

And....no spare.  :P

For another thing, all of the balls seem to be brightly colored, but also rather worn and tattered.  And if you don't like what is in your lane when you get there, you'd better hope you can trade with another lane, because that seems to be all there is.

On the plus side, they don't make you rent shoes from them.

On the minus side, we quickly understood why EVERY LANE had the bumpers up (to block off the gutters) before we arrived.  We put ours down and then quickly regretted it.  The lanes maybe have a tendency to be warped and dinged more here...possibly because of the bowling methods employed by most of the natives (throwing overhand, bouncing along the ground, ricocheting the ball back and forth on the bumpers, running down the lane a ways to try to make a good shot)... at any rate, gutter balls were extremely common.

I have to say, though, for myself, I've had pretty good luck bowling here in Israel.  The highest score I can remember having previously is maybe in the 50's or 60's.  My first time bowling here I scored over 80, which was exciting for me.  This last time, I broke 100, and apparently had the highest score of the night in our group.

Pretty exciting for a little Montana girl who's terrible at bowling.