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!

"Where's it coming from?"

Such was the response of a friend when first told the title of today's field study: Jerusalem Approaches. "And how does a city move, anyway?"

Today was my second time on this field study, examining approaches TO the city of Jerusalem. Last time I went we were interrupted by an ignorant rock, set on shattering our dreams of becoming world-famous historical geographers. It failed, instead shattering only one of our bus's windows. Still, it did cut the day's outing short. This time around we cleverly avoided flying rocks and had a wonderful day in the field.

We spent most of our time looking at the city of Jerusalem, finding where the ancient routes would have gone, and comparing the look of the land on either side of the watershed ridge.

Favorite parts of the day?

1. Just getting out, reviewing sites and routes, and enjoying the beautiful weather.

2. Getting to know some of the new students a little better.

3. Seeing some new-to-me sites

a. We got to walk through part of the cemetery on the Mt. of Olives. I'm sure that's something I could enjoy looking through for some time, but it was fun to get a little bit of a feel for it.

b. The Russian Orthodox site commemorating the Garden of Gethsemane. This church is usually close to the public, so it was fun to get a brief chance to see it. I'll have to go back someday and get pictures - it's beautiful.

c. A threshing floor just outside of Bethlehem. Too bad my Boaz wasn't there. :)

d. The grotto in the church next to the church of the Nativity - apparently where Jerome lived and worked on translating the Bible?

e. A place on the Promenade, further along that I had been, where we could see the city.

4. Listening to Dr. Wright's teaching again. On the Mt. of Olives we paused to talk about the flight and return of David with Absalom's rebellion and defeat. Think of the excitement that would have been felt by David's faithful subjects as he returned, victorious. The Bible doesn't say much about that, but it records a similar entrance to Jerusalem, about 1000 years later, as the Son of David came to his own people and kingdom, knowing that instead of welcoming him as the heir of David, they would shortly crucify him.

All in all, a very good day. Really, some of you should visit. You'd like it. :)

Jezreel Valley

This weekend was the much anticipated Regional Explorations Field study! The nine of us in the class, one spouse, our bus driver, and Dr. Wright spent 3 days exploring the far reaches of the Jezreel valley. This class is almost the pinnacle of our studies in the historical geography program. The seminar next semester is the real pinnacle, but this prepares us for that. We spend the class basically learning how to research various topics and issues in historical geography, and then putting together coherent presentations on what we learn. This trip was our final.

For those of you who know nothing of the Jezreel valley, let me give a brief introduction.

Well, I'll attempt to be brief. It might not work.

I have to start with Israel. In the history of the world, the region that we now call the middle east has played a huge role. I think it is fair to say that almost all "world empires" that have arisen have vied for control over as much of the "middle east" as they could grab. Many of these empires even originate in the middle east. Israel was never really one of these empires, but the land of Israel was always fought over. This is because Israel (and to some extent Jordan) contain the best routes for getting from one area of the middle east to another. In days when airplanes didn't exist and boats were rudimentary at best, land routes were all there was. There were various routes that could be used, depending on your purposes and where you were headed, but in the end, most of the routes ended up going through the Jezreel Valley.

The Jezreel Valley is a roughly arrow shaped valley in Israel, north of Samaria, but south of Galilee. It is surrounded by various hills and mountain ranges, but there are 7 passes in and out of the valley: Jokneam, Kishon, Shimron/Shimon, Tabor, Harod, Dothan, and Megiddo. Since there are 9 people in our class we added the Nazareth Ridge and the Acco Plain and we were each assigned one to research and present our findings at two sites in or related to our regions. Here's a map of the region. The green flags are sites we visited, the balloons are other important sites that we saw but didn't stop at. The purple lines are approximations of the routes we talked about, and the red line is the boundary of the West Bank.

Rather that detail exactly everything we saw and talked about (and probably bore you to death) I'm going to include a number of pictures from the weekend to give you a taste of some of the things we saw.

Climbing up the tell of Jokneam. The road you see is coming from the Jokneam pass and heading off into the Kishon pass.

Here are all the girls in the class, sitting on a random couch on top of Helkath.

Today's "Rushing Torrent of the Kishon."

Party time at Acco! Probably part of Eid-ul-Adham.

Sunset at Acco.

One of the crazy little fish jumping all over at Acco.

We stopped briefly at a possible location for En Dor (the little mound right in front of Mt. Tabor).

On top of Mount Tabor (traditional site of the Transfiguration).

Coming down the road from Tabor...hoping not to die! :)

Starting to feel like spring in the Jezreel valley - green grass and flowers!

Sun shines through the clouds as we look at the valley from the top of the Nazareth Ridge.

Sunset by Hannathon.

The Harod Spring, of Gideon fame.

My site on Mt. Gilboa, from where we could see (almost) into the Dothan Pass.

More flowers!

When we got lost a little man appeared to point the way. (How do we go up??)

The forest of Gilboa reminded me of Montana. I even found a Christmas "tree" to bring home!

Our wonderful class and professor (and Mindy!) on Megiddo.

Finding firewood on a hill by Megiddo...which also reminded me of Montana.

Last "site" of the trip, looking at Gath-Padalla and the entrance to the Dothan Pass.

Hopefully this gives you a taste of some of the things I got to see over the weekend - both educationally valuable and beautiful.

A Day in the Life of a JUC Grad Student

Disclaimer: While all of these events are unlikely to occur on any ONE given day, they are things that I am likely to see or experience at any given time.

1. Walking to school in the rain. Up hill. Both ways. Not even exaggerating. Oh how I hope it snows this winter!

2. Night-time field studies to the Israel Museum. This includes

a. Catching a taxi near the school with three other people, trying to haggle for a decent price, and hopefully managing to end up at the Israel Museum by 6pm

b. Once the whole class trickles in, in groups of four, entering the museum (at least the part that is open) and the proceeding to stand and/or sit outside for well over an hour. Fortunately it had stopped raining. Still cold.

c. Looking at the Second Temple period model of Jerusalem. It is a pretty sweet model, I have to say.

d. Reading about odd Rabbinical-type-people. Like Choni the circle-drawer. Or about the disagreements of Shammai and Hillel.

e. Sitting inside in warm, comfortable chairs, and watching an interesting movie about the community at Qumran. And by interesting I don't really mean "informative" but more "rather odd."

f. Going inside the Shrine of the Book and seeing artifacts from Qumran, including several Dead Sea Scroll fragments.

g. Trying to catch another taxi home...walking to the bottom of the hill to try to find one that will give us a better price...and saving maybe 12 NIS in the end, in exchange for walking further.

h. Gathering my things from school, and then walking home. Up hill. At least it wasn't raining, and the walk did warm me up.

3. Playing board games as part of my upper level graduate class...

...Yeah, I suppose I should explain this. For this week, we were each assigned a country or region (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, Judah, Philistia, and (my region) the raiders of the Greater Negev). We were to research sort of the political and economic type pressures and desires of our area during the 9th century BC. What was their resource base? What were they trying to gain? Who were they trying to trade with? Who would be natural enemies and who would be natural allies? All that sort of thing. In class we laid things out on the map and talked about what DID happen during the 9th century and why, as well as what COULD have happened (and maybe did happen during a different time period).

4. Watching beautiful sunsets from the roof of a building built on the remains of a tower from the Hasmonean period.

5. Trying to take care of and keep track of several visitors coming and going and coming again in my flat...and also trying to keep track of the coming and going of my flatmates.

6. Cooking. Lots of cooking. Including experimenting with new-to-me foods, such as quinoa and kohlrabi.

And that's all for tonight! Tune in next week for more adventures in the life of a JUC Grad Student! *cue music*

Jerusalem Approaches

This is a combination of two impression reports. We did the first part of this field study last Saturday. Unfortunately, it was interrupted half-way through, but we finished it up yesterday afternoon, so here are my impressions from those days.

September 13, 2008
Jerusalem Approaches Field Study

Today was an interesting day in more ways than one.

We started on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. We noticed that even though Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains, the mountains are closer on the east and west. The northern direction was probably the most open and therefore where attackers generally approached from.

We then crested and went a tiny ways down the other side of the Mount of Olives where we could look into the Judean wilderness. The contrast was stark. The trees and greenery end abruptly. The rock changed quickly from Cenomanian to Senonian limestone. Jerusalem and all places directly east are on the Dead Sea side of the watershed ridge, but Jerusalem is protected by the Mount of Olives. We talked briefly about how the prophet Jeremiah used the imagery of the dessert encroaching to warn the Judeans about approaching judgment.

From there we drove along the top of the Mount of Olives for a short way and stopped again to overlook Jerusalem. We walked down the mount, stopping at various tradition sights. The fist place was stopped is supposed to be the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:37-39
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”

I’ve always like those verses. They show the love that Jesus had for His people. And there have been times when I have felt similarly, when people I love have shown no interest in Christ. I’m sure that even then my emotion was nothing compared to His. Lord, come soon!

From there we went to the Church of All Nations, one of the traditional sites of the garden of Gethsemane. I suppose these churches are built to memorialize and help us remember these important events in the life of our Savior. I have to admit, though, that it is hard for me to spend time really thinking about exactly what he went through nearly 2000 years ago, possibly at the very spot we were at. We spend so little time at most of the places we go, and there are so many people, that I don’t really spend time thinking about what Jesus went through. Perhaps I’ll need to go back someday (with any luck, when its not as busy) and spend some time meditating on these things.

From there we walked to the bus, passing some monuments/tombs that were probably around in Jesus’ day. It was interesting that the monuments are called “nephesh.” It seems to speak of the eternal human desire for death not to be the end, for there to be something more beyond this life.

Once on the bus we headed into the west bank on our way to the Herodian. Unfortunately, we never made it there.


Saturday, September 20, 2008
Jerusalem Approaches (Part 2)

This week’s field study was a vast improvement over last week’s, or at least the ending of last week’s.

We started the day at the Herodian. We were blessed by a clear sky – much clearer than last week – which enabled us to have a great view of all the surrounding area. It kind of amazes me how close everything is. In Montana we have to drive for hours to get to the next city. You can also drive for hours without having any drastic changes in scenery. It can change fairly quickly at times, but it’s pretty uniform in other places, especially eastern Montana. Here, however, you have four (plus) important Biblical sites (with their four modern day cities) all within walking distance. It especially struck me how close Jerusalem and Bethlehem are. Also here, looking off of the Herodian, you can clearly see the boundary between farmable land with the Cenomanian limestone and terra rosa soil and the wilderness of Senonian limestone and basically no soil. So much history took place in this tiny area that I can see from the top of a relatively short man-made hill, it’s almost too much for a li’l Montana girl to take!

Herod himself was an interesting man and the structure of the Herodian tells us quite a bit about him, as does his newly discovered tomb site (probably). I don’t have much to say on the subject at the moment, but it is something to ponder.

From the top we could see Tekoa (Amos’s home town), Bethlehem, numerous other towns and villages, Jerusalem (or at least the Mount of Olives), the Judean Wilderness, the Dead Sea, and even into the Trans-Jordan highlands. We looked over the area where David must have watched his father’s flock and read Psalm 23. Shepherding in that country is very different from Europe or America. I’m sure that all areas have their dangers and inconveniences, but in the Judean wilderness, “green pastures” and “still waters” are basically unknown. I’m not quite sure what (if any) difference that should make in my interpretation of the psalm, but it does give an interesting insight into David’s life and faith.

After exploring the Herodian and taking the requisite pictures of people on pillars, we went on to Bethlehem and the church of the nativity. I don’t think I’m a huge respecter of “place.” If that’s the actual exact location where Jesus was born, that’s kind of cool, but I don’t think I have the same awe and reverence that some people seem to have. Nonetheless, it’s kind of interesting to see. It’s interesting to see how (and what) people worship. I also enjoyed taking pictures – there are a lot of old and beautiful things. We didn’t have much time there, which is ok, but it would be kind of nice to go back sometime and observe people a little more and maybe have some time to stop and think instead of rushing through, taking pictures of every interesting thing I see as quickly as possible.

Our last stop of the day was at Ramat Rachel where they are excavating the remains of a Judean palace, possibly build by Hezekiah. It was a beautiful area. One of the most interesting things were the cut stones that were thought to be capitols, possibly the forerunners of Ionian capitols. That, mentioned in conjunction with the concept of the alphabet (developed here and also exported to Greece and the rest of the world), made another idea that’s been in the back of my brain come more to the front. Exactly how much did the Jewish nation contribute to world history? They are considered a “mouse” rather than a “cat” and yet so much of our Judeo-Christian culture has stemmed from here. A. W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” Now, the Israelites did not always have a high view of God, but at least some of them did at sometimes, which is more than can be said of the cultures around them. Did this help them make advances in some that other nations could not have made? Advances that were then borrowed by other cultures? I have heard different theories propounded on this issue. Another thing to ponder in my spare time.