Galilee again! My last field study of the semester

Hippos

Well this weekend the Second Temple history class left with Dr. Wright to head up to the Galilee region to learn about the cities of the region that were under the command of Commander Josephus during the Jewish Revolt from 66-73 AD. We were able to sleep on the way up there and our first visit was the decapolis city of Hippos. This Greco-style city overlooks the entire Sea of Galilee.  The city also has a small theater, paved Roman roads with drainage system (solid rock piping). We had a lecture here and took pictures, then drove some more to the fishing village site of Bethsaida. This site was more like a patch of briars and thorns, it was really not well taken care of and the excavation needs to be done again. I was quite disappointed about it, but it was a beautiful day and we were able to have lunch under a eucalyptus tree and enjoy the sun. Afterwards we drove back to the our campus of the north, En Gev right ont he Sea and we got there in time to swim while the sun was going down. It was amazing. On Sunday, we had drove close to the Syrian border for a visit at Gamla (the Israeli kind, there are 2 supposed sites). We walked down the cliff face of a wadi and up to this jutting mountain that has the ruins of the city. Here we sat in the ruins of the synagogue and Dr. Wright lectured abou the history of the city. The city was destroyed by the Romans during the revolt and its fall was closely linked to that of what happened to Masada. It was great to be able to see two Roman siege weapons replicas - a scorpion and ballista, and to just think of how the siege and the full battle took place and to be able to read the account in Josephus. afterwards we had free time and then climbed our way back to the top of the wadi and enjoy a nice ice cream bar then driving again for two hours to Jopotata.

Ba'ram

Yopotata

Here we read about Josephus' account of the siege by the romans and his command in this city, how it was the last defeat in Galilee and the capture of Josephus along with his defection to the Romans. From here we walked down teh tell and through the wadi to the tell of Cana where Jesus celebrated a wedding of his friends and did his first miracle - turning water into wine. It was really cool to be able to see about 5 couples here and be able to think of the ancient wedding. too bad there wasn't a stand that sold wine here, that would've been nice to drink wine on the Cana tell.  We then climbed down the step tell, an walked for 2 miles to the bus. The valley that we were in is the Beth Natopha valley, and soon there will be a 8 lane highway that will be built in the beautiful farming land, so Im happy to see it before that happens. We the got all boarded on the bus and headed back to JUC. Around 8:30pm we got back to Jerusalem, and ate a late dinner,studied for Physical Settings test. And the start of the second to the last week in Israel with much to do before the end. Im getting tired and want a break, but not really wanting to go back home. I will miss living in Jerusalem and ISrael. It was truly a blessing to be able to study, lie, and have fun in this great nation, and see what God has given these people and the world to enjoy and remember his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who too lived in this land.

I'll post photos soon.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Map of Jordan at the Border

From Jerusalem to Amman

Today we crossed the border into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from the state of Israel. I though the crossing would be a littler faster than what it really was, from the first check point for exiting Israel then a entry check into Jordan with the whole checking process, taking facial pictures, too. From the border at Allenby Bridge Crossing, we rode to our first site in Jordan where we discussed the tel of Tell Dier Alla, which is ancient Pehel. Here we did our first horizon lookout in the land of the Moabites, which everything here is so much lusher and dare I say nicer to live in than in the west bank of the Holy River. Some classmates even found some interesting artifacts that will need to be researched and verified, it was really cool to be able to see them and what was funny is the tel is across the street from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. We had a wonderful overlook took at the Yarmuk Wadi where the British bombed the famous Great War rail bridge of the Turks in the early 1900s. Our tour guide then took us to a local tourist site of Umm Qais/ Gadara where we learned about how the Greeks/Romans made this city with the Cardo and Decanmos in opposite order and also we learned about the huge fountain and the octagonal agora for the rich people to gather and sell items, we also climbed up to the upper part of the theater and had the opportunity to have our photos taken with the local Jordanian school boys. Our last stop if the day was at this tel there we discussed the region and its geographic characteristics and how this was a perfect location for chariot battles. We also had the opportunity to see the street signs that were saying Syrian and Iraqi border. It would’ve been awesome to get some decent pictures of them specially the Iraq one for the entire event that has happened there the last two decades, but we didn’t due to time we had to be on our way to the Jordanian capital city of Amman. We got to the city and it was quite beautiful and also modern looking. Though there wasn’t much city planning this city had much to offer for any Arab or Western. Even the hotel where we stayed at for the night was incredible. I felt like royalty for that short time - the food, the hot shower, and flush bed with cable television. Though I don’t really miss TV that much, it’s the news and the movies that I do miss. So I’m watching BBC World News while typing my impression report with my feet up after walking around a good chunk of the city center trying to find the Starbucks for some souvenirs with a group who wanted Jordanian coffee mugs. On the walk I was shocked and kind of sadden to see so many Western influences in this little kingdom  - from Burger King to Papa johns, and many more that the natives are probably wanting but for us Americans we kind of came this way to get away fro it all. Though once awhile something’s from home are good, just not always when your abroad. Tomorrow we will have our day around Amman and start heading our way south to get to our fun place, where the famous Indiana jones movie, made it so famous – Petra. I am quite excited to wear my kefiyyah and ride a horse or camel to the ancient crescent moon city after visiting a huge Roman city.

Starbucks in Amman

The city of Amman from the Citadel

Amman to Tyre of Tobias

Today, of our second day of the Jordan trip for Physical studies we first started at the Amman citadel. Here we learned of the horizon overlook and that the Amman basin is the smallest of the basins in Transjordan and also is the heartland being made of Senionian chalk. The citadel is an eastern oriented city with the gate and roads facing east to west. This city is considered to be two-thirds bigger than the city of Jerusalem. Today there are four lane highways running the length of the kingdom from north to south and also a good highway towards Baghdad. Unlike Jerusalem, Amman has huge plazas and wider roads. It’s the largest city in Jordan that has a massive Western-face – not historic. Amman is the city of Rabbah meaning, “be high” which is after the Mesopotamian goddess – who was the queen of the high. What was interesting in the city top was the feature of proto-Aeolic capitals the same as in Jerusalem, meaning a shared architecture in the Levant. We left Amman for the ancient Roman city, of the Decapolis’ – Jerash. This city is named the city of a thousand pillars that is totally right, there are lots of pillars still standing even after surviving a hard earthquake. The first arch we walked under is made in honor of the Roman emperor, Hadrian who visited the city in 128 AD for the whole year. There is also an 800-meter long Cardo street that is lined with pillars and every 200 meters is a forum. There is also a Byzantine church called Marianos, built in the city around 570 AD here the rich and powerful were buried right outside of the church, and inside there is a full mosaic floor with almost perfect quality. There is the famous circular forum, which is huge; the Greeks actually built it with the measurements being 90 meters by 80 meters.

Traveling on we stopped on the side of the road at Penuel, to discuss the wadi systems significance in the story of Jacob wresting the unknown man. I have a new understanding of what “held by the heel” means after the discussion on the slope of the wadi and seeing Dr. Wright wrestle Trevor as God/angel wrestled Jacob here in those ancient days. We drove some more down to the bottom of the wadi system to a unknown site at first, where we as a class used our deductive skills to find out what this site was without looking at the entrance sign. After awhile of climbing around and looking at he huge stones and unusually large windows with no real open center courtyard of the building, we were kind of stumped. We then got together and learned that this site; was the site of the Tobiah dynasty who for generations wanted and tried to claim the throne of the Judah, but failed. One of the key members of the family was quite ambitious and loved to party, kind of like a Herod the Great person. His family did not like him and so he made himself a fortress palace on a island in the wadi system. So when the rains came, the wadi would fill and making the island even more protected and it was still close enough to the watershed road that anyone looking down would see it but could do anything about it. The Tobiah man died alone from suicide, at the end.

Hadrain's Arch in Jerash

Petra

Today, I was looking forward to having a great Indiana Jones experience, which I did. Having an awesome experience for learning of the ancient civilization of the Nabataeans who had live and prospered in the southern Edom region of Transjordan, as a kind of anthropologist.  After hiking all over the mountains, canyons and valleys that make up the Petra area with and getting back to the hotel on a donkey, the group and I found out that Beatrice had fallen from a rocky ledge and had broken her leg and got multiple cuts and scraps. We all prayed for her wellbeing and for whatever God’s will to be done in from this event. Because of this terrible incident the group had lunch and just hung out at the hotel for a couple of hours till we got a call from our professor that we can come and pick him and some other students up from the hospital. While we headed north to our next hotel in Al-Karek and Beatrice with Lori went to the hospital in Amman. On the way to Karek, we learned about Petra and Nabataeans.

These tough people that lived in around the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, 2200 years ago were people of great ingenuity and trading skills. The trade routes that they controlled went from the Middle East to Europe to the Far East in China. These people became very engaged in caravanning business that they became masters of the regions trade routes with the main exports being incense and spices, such as frankincense and myrrh. Though we don’t have any Chronicles of the Arab people until the writing of the Quran, we do have secondary sources that talk about the Nabataeans from Greek and Roman sources but the name Nabataea is not used. Nabataea is not mentioned in the Bible, but the Jews did know of it and there are some instances that may talk about it; such as King Herod mother and his wife. Also in Genesis, Isaiah, and even Matthew talk about the Arabian people in the south in a selective form.  This city-state became a kingdom in the first century AD then was soon annexed by the Roman Empire leading to its decline and death. Since we only went to Petra because of the medical emergency we didn’t have enough time to go to and learn about Bozrah, the capital of Edom. Once again we learned about the site while on the bus heading to Karek. The city of Bozrah was part of the Nabataeans in forming a kingdom before the Israelites, which was an excellent site for a capital. And it is mentioned in the Bible multiple times in: Ezekiel and Isaiah, it is also mentioned when King David marched his army to Edom and destroyed Bozrah and placing judgment on the inhabitants. The city was lost to time and was discovered in the 1970’s, today there are no primary sources that talk about the Edomites, just inscriptions from Israelites condemning the Edomites in a hateful way.  We are now staying at a hotel right next to the Crusader fortress of Karek. The room is sketchy and the food wasn’t up to par as the previous stops. My frustration was not having a decent shower to clean up after having a long hot and sweating day. Though I just have remembered that I am only here for one day, so it’s not that bad. Tomorrow is our last day of the field study in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and I am looking forward to come back to this really nice nation.

Standing in from of the famed Treasury Tomb

Petra

Busy and Busier - Happy Easter!!!

Me sitting on a tomb.

So the last time I updated the blog was two weeks ago. The time has been flying by and I am just getting busier and busier, with all of my research papers and final field studies for classes. And looking at the calendar we only have ten days of regular class time then the rest is field studies. 


Well, lets see what I did the last two weeks: I had a field study for Second Temple class around the Judean Hill Country, then we celebrated palm Sunday by going to church service at the Christ Church in the Old City, then in the afternoon we trekked up to the Mount of Olives and marched with thousands of Christians down the mount to Lions Gate/ St. Stephans Gate. This was a awesome gathering of Christians from all corners of the globe. I remember seeing flags from Bulgaria, Russa, Spain, Italy, Brazil. Mexico, Croatia, and many more. There were music and prayers and people signing Hosanna and Jerusalem songs while waving palm fronds which made the Triumphal Entry of our Lord Christ Jesus even more real and alive for me. 

Sam and I during the Triumphal Entry march.

Then on Monday my mother came to visit me during Holy Week!
She got into Israel around 2:30 am but came to JUC around 6ish where she slept while I was in class for the day. That afternoon I took her to Abraham Hostel in New City and walked back to JUC for dinner.


Then on Tuesday after my Islamic Thought class I took mom all over the Old City - starting in Zion Gate in the Jewish Quater we walked to the Western Wall (wailing wall) and saw the Temple Mount, visited the Robinson's Arch and the eastern Steps, where Jesus preached the 10,000 and they got baptized, from there we went to have lunch and during lunch mom witnessed her first Bar Mitzvah while eating falafel. We toured the Jaffa Gate square and visited JUC's Old City friend, Shaban, then hiked it to Church of the Redeemer for a horizon lookout of the city then back down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which when we visited it made mom cry a couple of times. This day was a very emotional day for her, praying at the Western Wall, seeing the tomb of Christ (traditional site).

Mom praying at the Western Wall.

On Wednesday, after Cultural Backgrounds I dragged mom along quickly around the southern edge of the Old City then walked down the Kidron Valley stopping at the Abasolm's Pillar for pictures and onward to the Church of All nations (traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane). This church was beautiful and was so moving in ways only a personal visit one could understand. Mom cried again, and then we walked up to the Church of Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox Church, but it was closed so we walked further up the Mount of Olives and gave mom some time to take skyline photos of the City of David - Jerusalem.


Maundy Thursday, I had class then I with my classmates and mom went to the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem for a research paper on two archaeological objects that were used in everyday instances. Afterwards we had lunch in the Muslim section and took the tram to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem. This was my second time here and both, mom and I had a hardt time in the Children's Memorial and the whole thing was just somber and very saddening. I just hope that if anything  like this happens while I am around on this earth. i will hel the helpless, the dying and do the right thing.


Good Friday, it was sleep in day for me which I needed it. And I had to set up for my Cultural Backgrounds class Last Supper/ Passover Meal which we did in a first century style. where we reclined ont he floor with mattresses and ate laying down all while dressed in Greco-Roman fashion/togas. It was really cool learning how the Triclinium, as it was called worked and how Jesus and his disciples would've had the Last Supper in this kind of fashion. But mom and I didn't stay for the whole thing because we were invited to a Jewish Seder meal by one of mom's friends brother who lives in German Colony (Old Kataom) in Jerusalem. We got there and it was clearly a Jewish family event, but we were greeted with open arms and it was truly great leaning about the passover and reading through the entire Haggadah was a real experience. which lasted till midnight. I will never forget this night and the endless praise to god about the deliverance of the Jewish people from egypt, and also the great food and lots of wine.


Tomorrow is Easter for the Western Church (Catholic and Protestant). Mom and I are going to the Garden Tomb where there will be four services and so we'll go to the English one at 9:30 and then back to JUC for Easter BBQ and  Egg hunt.


HAPPY EASTER!
HE IS RISEN!!!