Spring Break...Israel Style

I spent some time in Galilee last week. Fortunately, most of it was not along the Sea of Galilee. Don't get me wrong. I love the Gennesaret, but this was not a good time to be there. These photos, taken and we zipped by in a bus, don't do justice to the reality of Passover at the lake, but maybe you'll get an idea.

Basically, every available square inch of shoreline was covered in an unending sea of nearly identical tents. And where there weren't tents there were thousands of Israelis, burning meat on their portable charcoal grills. (The idea of a rare steak seems to be unknown here.)

Passover is a huge holiday here, which most people take advantage of by going on vacation somewhere. Apparently, an extremely large portion camps out at Galilee. (You would think that Sukkot would be the camping holiday, but no, it's Passover.) The hostel we stayed at, within easy rocket range of Lebanon, was also jam-packed. (No, we were not in any danger of being bombed...don't freak out.)

Anyway, with these beaches in mind, I was not surprised to come across this article, comparing the beaches to a garbage can in the wake of Passover visitors. Apparently the words, "clean up after yourself" don't penetrate the consciousness of the average human here, either.

Day Two: Cair Paravel and Beyond

Friday morning at 8am on the dot (or perhaps a little after the dot) the five adventures were on their way, continuing north along the coast. They knew where they were going but not how to get there. Turning in search of information they suddenly saw the object of their desire: the Baha'i gardens, in all their manicured glory. It turns out that the five adventurers have mad luck like that. It also turns out that only a couple levels of the gardens are open to tourists not on a tour, so the five adventurers only managed a view at the bottom...

...and from the top.

Perhaps it as just as well. Worn out from their adventures the previous night, the five stalwart companions were in no shape to climb thousands of stairs that morning.

Instead, they continued in their journey northward. Once, they encountered and Israeli Napoleon, who fortunately allowed them to pass unchallenged. However, he did charge them to go to Acco and to conquer where he had failed. They did.

With the city firmly beneath their feet, the ravenous friends set out in search of sustenance. Adventurer #1 followed his nose to the falafel, which was quickly consumed.

Filled and happy they continued their exploration of this newly conquered city. Tyranny was not their objective, but before their benevolence was known some of the natives jumped off the city walls into the Mediterranean in an attempt to escape.

Fortunately no lives were lost and the natives soon returned to the city, basking in the favor of their new rulers.

However, like Alexander the Great, the army of five felt the need for new challenges, new land to conquer, and so they move onward, heading west and north into the hills in search of a rumored stronghold in the land: the Crusader Castle Montfort. Riding swiftly (i.e. trudging) they crested a ridge and paused to enjoy the breath-taking view and to form their plan of attack.

The castle was deserted, but as they began to wend their way through the trees and overgrown shrubs and rocky passages they began to wonder if they had somehow made their way through a wardrobe door and arrived at Cair Paravel.

Meanwhile, however, a battalion of orcs (*scream*)

arrived at the castle and attacked the adventurers five. The orcs were soon vanquished, but in the battle the five were separated, thus accounting for the difficulty they had in all arriving at the vehicle at the same time.

Leaving Cair Paravel behind they traveled through Archenland and the most magnificent mountain and valley view any of them had seen in this country, and so they left Narnia behind.

That night they encamped at the Sea of Galilee, bathing in the cool waters and roasting meat over a roaring fire.

There the group of five was joined by five more adventurers (Joshua, Bethany, Seth, Emily, and Steve). The ground was hard and rocky, but as Adventurer #1 was heard to say, "The rocks get softer the longer you're here." None of the adventurers struggled with sleeplessness that night.

(we love JUC!)

Second Temple Galilee, Day 2

April 26, 2009

Today I got up relatively early to walk down to the shore of the lake. It was a beautiful morning, still and shining.  Some frogs were still singing, perhaps still trying to get their tiny tadpole babies to sleep.  No wonder Jesus loved being in Galilee.

After a quick breakfast we hopped on the bus and again headed into the eastern heights.  This time our destination was the famed site of Gamala - "the Masada of the North."  The site itself is pretty spectacular, a rocky and narrow hill, like Hippus with valleys on 3 sides and a narrow saddle on the 4th, looking down at the sea of Galilee.  There's a waterfall nearby, and eagles nesting in the cliffs.  

We clambered down the mountain and across the saddle to the remains of the synagogue where we paused to discuss site identification.  See, archaeological sites don't usually come with signs attached: "To the excavator:  Congratulations!  You've just discovered _____(name of site), mentioned by Josephus in _____(reference), and in the Bible in _______(reference)."  Instead, site identification uses a careful mix of references in ancient texts, modern toponymic connections, and archaeological finds to indentify a site.  Gamala, for instance, is described by Josephus much as I described both Hippus and Gamala, with the added detail that the hill of the city bore some resemblence to a camel's back.  He also includes some information about its location in a few texts.  Based on this sort of information, there have actually been a number of sites suggested as possible locations of Gamala.  One is Hippus.  Another, obviously, is the current site we were visiting, which currently bears the name "Gamala."  A third, though relatively close, is just over the border in Syria.  Hippus and Gamala have both been excavated, but the third site has not.  While at Gamala the archaeological evidence fits well with what we know took place there, it is not entirely convincing, at least to some.  My archaeology teacher finds it convincing, but then he is a Jew, and very pro-Israeli, and may have alterior motives for wishing to believe that Gamala is in modern day Israel.  It could be Gamala, but there are still questions and issues.  Perhaps they could be resolved by excavating the other site.  Archaeology: another reason to pray for peace between Syria and Israel.  How much we miss by not being able to go there!

After our discussion we had about an hour to climb and explore.  I went to the top of the hill which was covered by reasonably large boulders.  It reminded me of our boulder fields at camp.  I'd want to live there if I were a second temple Jew.  It's a beautiful area.  I'd rather prefer not to be there (or anywhere) when the Romans attacked, though.  Then we had the sweaty climb back over the saddle and up the hill to the bus.

On our way out we stopped at a Dolmen, which pretty much made my day.  The dolmens of Israel date to about the Intermediate Bronze Age (2200-1950 BC) and were probably used as burial structures.  We learned about them in archaeology last semester, so it was fun to actually see some.  

We made our way back to the other side of the lake, paused in a small town to buy some pita for lunch, and ended up by Jotapata (Yodfat).  After a quick lunch we hiked to the top of the hill where Jotapata had been located.  The basic geography of the city is just a variation on the same theme as Hippus and Gamala, though perhaps less dramatic than Gamala.  For those of you who have never heard of Jotapata, prepare for a short history lesson.  

During the first revolt of the Jews against the Romans (culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD), Josephus, a priest from Jerusalem, was assigned to be commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee.  To make a long story short, he was at Jotapata when it fell to the Romans and he was captured.  He managed to ingratiate himself with the commander of the army and became their advisor.  For a  more detailed account you can read what he says about himself.  

So we spent a little time looking around Jotapata, exploring a few of the many caves, perhaps even the one where Josephus hid for a while.  Then we walked, stumbled, slid, and otherwise traveled down the hill.  At the bottom we followed a dirt road for a mile or so until it passed the hill of Khirbet Qana, overlooking the Netopha Valley.  

This is the most likely location of Cana, the place where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine.  It was a beautiful, clear day, and from the top of Cana we could see Nazareth, Sepphoris, Gath-hepher (home town of Jonah - 2 Kings 14:25), Hannathon, and even, in the distance, the rise of the Carmel Range.  This is the area where Jesus grew up.  He probably had relatives in Cana, thus explaining why he attended a wedding there.  This agricultural region of his youth is probably where he got the imagery for most of his parables.  

We walked down the hill and went further down the dirt path along the edge of the valley to where the bus met us.  It's kind of strange seeing wheat ripening in April when back home it probably hasn't begun to sprout.  From there we headed back to Jerusalem.

It was a good trip.  The smaller group was nice.  Much food for thought.  It was nice to walk and hike and see new sites.  The weather was pretty much perfect, which helped too.  Actually, it was just nice to be in the field (with Dr. Wright) again.  I've missed that this semester.   

Galilee, Day 3

October 27, 2008

Time for more tea and more impressions. Today was another full day. I’ll start with the highlights (places I enjoyed most).

1. I got to see the Jordan River! I think I may have caught a glimpse of it before, but for heaven’s sake! This is the end of my second month in Israel on my second trip here. The Jordan is one of the most famous places in this land, probably mostly because of spirituals. I mean, really, rarely would you meet someone who has heard of Beth Shean, much less knows where it is. Everyone knows about the Jordan. So it was about time that I got to see it! I was a little disappointed that the waters didn’t part when I put my foot in it, but I guess I wasn’t carrying the ark, after all, and shouldn’t be too distraught. I did get to see an amazing green and orange bird, though, so that made up for it.

2. Dr. Wright surprised us with a boat ride this morning! We just went out for a bit and came back, but it was lovely. It was interesting to learn a bit about fishing and the types of nets used. The best part was seeing Dr. Wright walk on water, though. It was nice that the rain let up for most of the ride too.
3. Mt. Arbel. Enough said. Ok, maybe not. We got to hike down the cliff and look into a few of the caves.
I didn’t see as many caves as I would have liked because I didn’t think I’d have time before it got dark. Oh well. It still amuses me so much that they have hand hold and foot holds built into the trail. I mean, it’s really nice. I’m not sure that I would have been brave enough otherwise to come down it, especially since it was a bit slick after the rain. But the trail really wasn’t much worse than some places around Natural Bridge or Monument, and those don’t have hand-holds. We joke around that in America if someone falls off a cliff they or their surviving kin sue for damages (“Why didn’t you warn me that standing near a cliff was dangerous?!”) In Israel they say, “Oh, you fell off a cliff? Stupid you.” As true as that may be, they sure have a lot more signs and rails and such around here. Of course, that is probably because it also has a denser population. These places probably get hundreds of visitors weekly, if not daily. Monetarily it just isn’t feasible to put these sort of safe guards all over Montana. At any rate, back to the point, Arbel was really beautiful. We even saw a bit of a rainbow, which pretty much made my day. We serve an amazing God!
Those were the beginning, ending, and somewhere in the middle of my day. The rest of the day wasn’t bad. We went to Qazrin, Kursi, and Capernaum. All of which I had been to before. In fact, the only new place for me today was the Jordan. I got to see a few different parts of the places I’d been (like the cistern at Kursi
and the “flying-saucer-church” at Capernaum) and I got to hear a different perspective on some things along with some new information, but a lot of it was review. Which isn’t bad. I admit, though, as much as I need review, I enjoy learning new things more.

Fortuantely, I did learn some new things. 
1. I learned that this northern area had 5 geo-political divisions (Philip’s territory, Galilee, Tyre/Syrio-phonecia, Decapolis, and Samaria. Of those, only Galilee was “Comfortably Jewish,” and it was in the middle of all the rest. By putting his home base here, Jesus was still focused on the Jews, but available to all sorts of people.
2. I learned that the job description of a disciple was someone that Jesus wanted so they could be with him. (Mark 3:13-14) We also talked a little about the 12 – their backgrounds and such.
3. When Jesus “crossed over” the sea He probably didn’t go straight across it in either direction. It probably was often as little as from Capernaum to Bethsaida: simply a crossing from one of the five ‘valleys’ around the sea to the next one, or similarly, from one geopolitical region to the next.
4. In Mark 5:1 Jesus arrives in one of these regions from somewhere “across” the sea. Some translations call it the “Land of the Gadarenes” or Gedera. Others call it Gerasa, and get others say it was Gergasa. The funny thing about Gerasa especially is that it is about 40 miles from the Sea of Galilee and 3000ft higher. That translation doesn’t seem so likely. Gedera is closer but still a ways from the sea. The only one really on the sea (which is pretty necessary for this story) is Gergasa (today known as Kursi). All three places have remains of Byzantine churches to commemorate this event. I think we’ll get to visit Gerasa on our Jordan trip.
This is at the church at Gergasa:

5. At Qazrin (or Qatzrin or to really Americanize it, Katsrine) we heard a story about wine-making at JUC. Sounded pretty nasty. We watched a video about the Talmud. I found it really terribly confusing. I couldn’t follow the logic of the presentation. We also looked there at a reconstructed house and the remains of a Synagog from near Jesus’ time. It gave a decent idea of what He would have been familiar with, and what he probably built as a carpenter in his own village.
6. Logically, if Joseph was going to Bethlehem for the census, that would mean he was from there and probably had family of some sort still there. Which means he probably would have stayed with family. In Middle Easter culture, generally there is a front “public” room where guests stay. A little further in is the room where the animals stay in inclement weather. Since the shepherds were out watching their flocks, we must assume that it was summer and the weather was fine and there were no animals in the “stable.” In a sense, then, it was an honor for Mary and Joseph to be taken out of that public room and brought further back into the house. Now that’s quite a different take on the story of the nativity.
7. At Capernaum it poured. For probably about 10 minutes.
We weren’t in it for most of the time, but we did manage to get fairly wet. We sat out most of it in the church built over the supposed sight of Peter’s house (or that of his in-laws) where Jesus is supposed to have stayed.

I’ll end with that. Time to go re-pack and make sure I’m all set to head “home” tomorrow. Strange how quickly Jerusalem has become home. I’ve enjoyed Galilee, but I’ll be glad to go back too.

Galilee, Day 1

I have just reterned from a 4 day trip to Galilee and you know what that means! Lots of new blogs posts. So here I'll attempt to post the impression report from my first day. Maybe I'll even be able to add pictures. :) It's a bit long, so feel free to skim.


October 25, 2008
As I sit myself down with a nice cup of tea at the end of a long day in the field, I find myself rejoicing, still, for this amazing opportunity. Every now and then it hits me again, how amazing this all is. (Side note: here at the Sea of Galilee we are below sea level, which means water boils at a slightly higher temperature. I’ve always wanted to make tea below sea level!)

Today I was thinking about Montana, as I often find myself doing. I’m sometimes afraid that I talk (and think) about Montana too much; I really hope I don’t annoy people with my Montana references. At any rate, that got me to thinking about the longest period of time I’ve actually been out of Montana. Pervious to this trip the longest I’d been out of the USA was 3 weeks. I’ve surpassed that! I think the longest that I’ve been outside my home state is two months, when I worked at a camp in Alaska. So, by the end of this semester, I’ll have been away from Montana for a record amount of time. It kind of made me feel like a hick. Most people go away to college or get married and move across the country, or move from state to state with their parents. I don’t really think of myself as a “home-body,” but the fact is, I’ve spent most of my life in a 200 mile radius. Of course, it’s been my dream for years to live and minister overseas (long-term). Perhaps this is a good start.

Today we started our field study at Caesarea. It was a beautiful day. A bit hazy, but not too hot and not too cold. It is a very different feeling place from Jerusalem, with good reason. The geography is totally different and they were built and inhabited for totally different reasons. Jerusalem looked to God (ideally); Caesarea looked to Rome. For the Jews, the “Uttermost parts of the earth” (mentioned in Acts 1:8) started at Caesarea. It was a different world. Today, as secular Jews played on the beaches there, while orthodox Jews remained in their synagogues in Jerusalem, it’s still a different world.

We were able to spend a little time looking over Caesarea. Never enough, but it was a start. We got to see the remains of Herod’s palace and watch little fish swim in what used to be a fresh water pool, right on the edge of the ocean. We sat and talked for a while in what is likely the remains (or on top of the remains) of the Praetorium where Paul was imprisoned. We got to see the theatre and the aqueducts (both evidence of Roman domination). How fun would it be to perform a play on that stage? Someday, when I’m rich and famous, I’m going to bring my drama students over here and we’ll perform in Caesarea’s theatre.
(Here's part of the Aqueduct and a view of the remains of Herod's Palace.)


Our next stop was for lunch at a little restaurant in/by a Druze village on Mt. Carmel. It was lovely. We had the choice of falafel or chicken (don’t remember the name…). I had the falafel. Then we got to put all sorts of yummy veggies and such on it. It was amazing.

Next stop was near the monastery on Mt. Carmel (the monastery itself was closed until 2:30). Because of that we didn’t have quite as wide of a view, but, on the other hand, it was so hazy we wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway. Dr. Wright pointed out a few things from where we were and then we discussed the importance of Mt. Carmel.

Along with the Sharon plain, Lebanon, and Bashan, Mt. Carmel is listed in the Bible as a place of blessing and richness – always green, even in drought. Of course, it is most famous for the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

Baal, as I understand him, was the Canaanite god of fertility. He is pictured in a couple ways: riding on clouds with lightning (a god of storms and rain) and riding (or being) a bull (again emphasizing fertility). If Baal were to send fire from heaven, one would expect it to be in the form of a lightning bolt. One would expect him, having accepted that offering, to also end the drought and send rain. Strangely enough, this is approximately what happened (as far as we can tell). The only differing being that it happened when Elijah prayed to the God of Israel rather when the prophets prayed to Baal. Thus, we see here the LORD performing the actions that would be expected of Baal. According to Dr. Wright, at this point it seems likely that Elijah felt a “moment of ontological uncertainty.” Exactly who is this God he is serving? Is it another god like Baal but with a different name? Perhaps this is why, after such a huge success, he flees from the threats of a woman. And where does he flee to? Horeb. The mountain where God firsts declared Himself to the people of Israel. There, God doesn’t speak to him with the wind or earthquake or fire. God speaks to him in the “sound of thinnest silence.” In that time, God demonstrates to Elijah that He is totally and completely different from any other god. He can appear in different ways. He has power over everything other gods claim to control (like rain and lightening). But we must not limit Him to that. Perhaps that is what was going on.

On a somewhat ironic note, it rained on us on top of Mount Carmel.

The next stop was Megiddo. It’s always so exciting to go to places that we’ve discussed in Archaeology or other classes. We got to see the gates and the round altar and the water system. I think I’d seen all of those things before, for that matter, but it adds so much meaning to seeing them if you know something about them.
(This is the temple area at Megiddo. You can kind of see the round altar from, I think, the Early Bronze Age.)


We didn’t have a lot of time at Megiddo (another reason to go back!), so on the bus we discussed a bit the “Armageddon” mentioned in Revelation 16:16. Traditionally, it has been translated at “Har Megiddo” or “Mountain of Megiddo.” This is possible, but it should be noted that if that is correct, in all likelihood John was not referring to Tel Megiddo. A tel and a har are very different things and John would have known the difference. It could, though, be referring to the mountains around that area. Another possibility is that it actually meant “Har Mo’ed” which means “Mountain of Assembly.” Is it possible that John was alluding to Isaiah 14:13 and by “Armageddon” he really means Jerusalem? Today, Megiddo isn’t really worth fighting over any more. Jerusalem is.

Our final stop was on the Nazareth Ridge, the place called the “Jumping Mountain.” Possibly the place where they tried to stone Jesus? From there you can see the location of so many different Bible stories – Deborah and Barak, Saul and Jonathan, Elijah, Elisha, etc. We can be fairly certain that Jesus visited this hill as a child and that he knew these stories. What did he think about when he looked over the Jezreel valley? What did he ponder when he considered the site of so many Israelite victories and defeats? How did this affect his life? Interesting points to ponder.
(Here's Jesse, reading from Luke 4:16ff on the Nazareth Ridge.)


Now, having arrived at En Gev, with a good meal in my belly, I think I could just about sleep through the thunderstorm described in Psalm 29.

(And just for fun, here's a cool flower from the Sharon Plain. Could this be the rose of Sharon or the Lily of the valley?)