Israel 2014 #12

#12 … Thursday – May 8^th  [The Resurrection and the Start of the Church]

Today was our last day here in Jerusalem.  Did I tell you that this is a hilly place?  And everything is limestone rock --- that you walk on, sit on, climb, etc.

Here are three things that what we did before heading back to Tel Aviv for our midnight flight home ….

First - The Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb is located north of the Damascus Gate, was suggested in the 19^th century as an alternative site of Calvary and Jesus’s tomb.  In Jerusalem for a visit in 1883, General Charles Gordon spied a prominent rocky crag which looked to him like it could be the "place of the skull" mentioned in the Bible as where Jesus was crucified.

  

Around the corner Gordon identified an ancient tomb and putting the two together he located the hill of crucifixion and the nearby burial place.

The slope has eroded badly in the last hundred years, but some maintain they can still see the eye sockets and the nose bridge.  Regardless, it must be noted that while the Bible locates the crucifixion at the "place of the skull," it never says that it was on a hill, nor that this place bore the resemblance of a skull.  It also could be asked if this hill which resembles a skull looked the same 2000 years ago.

This is the place believed by many to be the resting place of Jesus.  Some archaeologists question the authenticity of this tomb because typological features suggest that it is a tomb originally hewn in the time of the Old Testament and not a "new tomb" as specifically stated in Scripture.

While the setting is very suggestive of what the garden would have looked like in the time of Jesus, excavations would seem to indicate that the tomb is too ancient to have been the one built by Joseph of Arimathea. 

Second – The Mount of Olives.   Also known as Olivet, Mount Olivet, and Har HaZeitim.

The Mount of Olives is the2900-foot hill facing the old city of Jerusalem, on the eastern side of Kidron valley.  The two-mile long ridge has three summits each of which has a tower built on it.  Its name came from the olive trees that once grew on its hillside from ancient times.  According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will appear here and bring the dead back to life. Therefore, the hillside became the most holiest cemetery, and the hillside is covered by thousands of grave stones.

Old Testament: The hill is first referred in the Bible when King David flees the city (2 Samuel 15: 30, see references). King Solomon erected altars on the hill dedicated to false alien gods. They were later destroyed by King Josiah who "filled it with bones" to prevent future worships.  Prophet Zechariah talks about the day of Judgment, with Mount of Olives its epicenter of God's fiery fight against the enemies of Jerusalem.

New Testament: Mount of Olives is associated with acts in the life of Jesus. Several churches mark these places: Pater Noster church, the place where according to tradition Jesus taught his disciples the Lords prayer; the tear-shaped church of Dominus Flevit ("the Lord wept") where Jesus wept over the future destruction of the city; Gethsemane (Gat Shemanim) where Jesus was betrayed and arrested.

Middle Ages: Until the 12th C AD the Jews used to come and pray from the top of mount of olives, since it has a great view of the temple Mount. During Sukkoth (Tabernacles - a Jewish religious festival) they conducted parades on the hillside.

Third – The Southern Steps of the Temple Mount.

The main public access to the Temple was from the Southern Steps.  People entered and exited through a double and triple gate, together called the Huldah Gate.  These gates had to handle enormous crowds during the feast days; estimates as high as 150,000 at a time.  As Jewish pilgrims would approach the temple, they would begin to chant the Psalms of Ascent [Psalms 120 – 134].  They communicated the idea of moving up to God and your soul moving closer to God.

In this area there are a number of ritual baths from the time of Christ, and it is believed that this is where the founding of the early church took place (Acts 2).

Looking forward to being home in our own church – Grace Community on Sunday, May 11^th!!

Israel 2014 #11

#11 … Wednesday – May 7^th  [The last hours of Jesus]

First – Upper Room.  So much happened here .. Location of the Passover meal (Mark 14:12- 15), Jesus washes the feet of His disciples (John 13:1 – 20), Jesus identifies Judas as the betrayer (Mark 14:18 – 21), The prediction of Peter’s denial (Mark 14:27 – 31), The Lord’s Supper is instituted (Matthew 26:26 – 29); and the Upper Room discourse (John 14 – 17).

The Upper Room or Cenacle, is traditionally thought to be in the upper portion of Old Jerusalem on the West Side of the city, in the wealthy section.  Archaeological excavations in the Jewish quarter show that there were large homes in this area during the time of Christ.

There is a possibility that this is indeed the correct location of the Upper Room.  A church was built on this site soon after the death of Jesus.  It must have survived the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70A.D.  Bishop Epiphanius wrote of how Roman Emperor Hadrian made

an inspection tour of Jerusalem in 130 A.S. and found “everything razed except for a few houses and a certain small church of the Christians which stood on Mount Zion in the place where the disciples returned after the ascension.”

This church was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the following centuries before being handed over to the Franciscans who restored the room giving it its present Gothic appearance.

Second – Garden of Gethsemane.

After our time in the Upper Room we traced the path of Jesus downward through both the wealthy and common sections of the city, seeing where he would have left the city by the Water Gate and entered the Kidron Valley. 

It’s a long steep walk for sure and again the whole group was remarking about how “fit” Jesus and “His boys” must have been.  From there we began our journey up the valley with the massive walls of the city on our left and the Mount of Olives ridge on our right.

Our destination, like that of Jesus so long ago was Gethsemane.  The name means “olive press”  or “olive stores.”  In Hebrew it is gat shemanim.  It is a place where we find ancient olive trees and olive presses and storage areas.  The idea behind the olive press is that they were crushed three different times, with a very heavy stone, to get oil out of them.  And it’s very interesting that Jesus prayed here three times and is said to have “sweat drops of blood” from the agony of bearing the sins of the world.

Gethsemane is the place of many events in the life of Jesus: His betrayal, teaching of His disciples, and time spent alone with the Father.  Luke 21:37 tells us that Jesus slept here at night; Luke 29:39 tells us that it was His custom to go here, and John 18:2 tells that Jesus often met His disciples here.  The present location fits the description of Gethsemane at the time of Jesus and this tradition has been maintained since about 330 A.D.  In this area, we find the Garden of Gethsemane, the Basilica of the Agony, and the Cave of Betrayal.

The Franciscan Church of All Nations contains the Garden of Gethsemane outside and the  Basilica of the Agony within.  In the garden there are eight olive trees that may well be over 1,300 years old.  The olive tree doesn’t die, but continues to live even if cut down, by producing new shoots from its roots.

The Garden of Gethsemane is the place where Jesus left His disciples and asked them to sit while He went to pray (Matthew 26:36).

  

He then took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (John and James) and began to be sorrowful and very heavy of heart.  He asked them to wait there and keep watch for him as He went a little farther where He fell on His face and prayed (traditionally this is believed to be at the rock in the Basilica of Agony) (Matthew 26:37-46). 

It is interesting to note that Peter, James, and John were the three who witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus and the glory of it, and now they were witnessing the agony and the perfect submission of Jesus to the will of His Father.

Third – Caiaphas’ House / St Peter in Gallicantu (literally “cock crows”).

The Church commemorates Peter’s three denials of Jesus and his repentance.  It lies on the eastern slope of present day Mount Zion.  This site also commemorates the illegal trial of Jesus staged by Caiaphas and Annas (Jewish High Priests), and the imprisonment of Jesus. 

Outside the existing church is an ancient stairway which is actually main walkway up the side of Mount Zion.  It is very likely that Jesus, after being taken prisoner in Gethsemane, was led up these stairs to the house of Caiaphas.  These stairs were in existence in Jesus’ day.

This location for Caiaphas was determined by reports from Christian pilgrims from the 3^rd century A.D.  Their reports say this site “was known by all.”  About 460 A.D. the Empress Eudoxia built a church on the ruins of Caiaphas’ house to commemorate this occasion.

The present day church was built over the remains of a basilica destroyed on this site by the Persians in 614 A.D.

Fourth – Wohl Museum – Praetorium.

One of the most difficult topographical problems of Jerusalem is to identify the location of the Praetorium where Jesus stood before Pilate, and where He set out carrying the gross to Calvary or Golgotha.  One thing is certain; it was one of three palaces used by Herod the Great. 

1^st – The Antonio Fortress (north of the Temple), 2^nd – The new Upper Palace of Herod (next to the Jaff Gate and a one minute walk from my hotel door), or 3^rd – The ancient Royal Palace of the Hasmoneans.

Since Crusader times it was always identified with Antonio Fortress, where the traditional 14 stations of the Cross evolved over the years.  This Fortress sat on the north west corner of the temple mount and gave the Romans a very visible presence to the Jews.  When new archaeological evidence suggested that the pavement was from Emperor Hadrian’s time in 130 A.D., many scholars felt compelled to abandon this old, traditional location.

Many researchers moved the Praetorium to Herod’s Upper Palace as the next likely location.  The problem with this location is that there has never been a Christian tradition that it was used as the place where Jesus was sentenced.

The third location is the ancient Hasmonean Palace.  No one knew where this was located until after the Jewish reclaimed the city of Jerusalem after a hard fought battle in 1967.  In 1970 archaeologists found a magnificent building which is designated as the Palatial Mansion (see artist’s rendering of what the ruins would have looked like), leading many scholars to identify it as the Hasmonean Palace used by Herod, and later on by Pilate. 

Our group had a fascinating time as we explored this mansion and other partially preserved 1^st century homes of the wealthy.  Herod Antipas had probably come from Tiberias for the Passover and stayed to preside over the trial of Jesus. 

Fifth – Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Although the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (“tomb”) is now within the city walls, it was outside the walls of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. 

Various places within the church contain remains from the 1^st century, adding credibility to its identification as the location of Calvary and the empty tomb.  Up the stairs you will see bedrock at a considerable height above the current floor; this is all that remains of the outcrop of rock which is the probable location of where Christ was crucified.

Inside the church is a rocky outcropping which is the traditional place where the cross was placed. Archaeological excavations have demonstrated that this site was outside the city but close to one of its gates and thus would have been a good location for a crucifixion.  Today this chapel is controlled by the Greek Orthodox Church.

In A.D. 135 Emperor Hadrian built a temple to the goddess Aphrodite directly over this outcrop of rock.  In A.D. 326, when the pagan temple was razed, the workmen looked for the tomb of Christ.  When they believed they had found the correct one, the dug out the bedrock around the tomb so that it now resembles a small chapel.

Israel 2014 #10

#10 … Tuesday – May 6^th  [Back in Jerusalem – Looking at reminders of worship and persecution]

Yesterday we spent a lot of time at the city of Beit She’an – Scythopolis. It must have been a remarkable place from the size and remains of the ruins. 

Scythopolis was at the intersection of the Jezreel Valley (runs from the N.W. to the S. E. between Galilee and Samaria) and the Jordan Valley (runs from the Sea of Galilee in the North to the Dead Sea in the South) --- and at the intersection, the Beit Shea’an Valley is formed. 

The city was built around an ancient Tel on which numerous civilizations have been identified.  Jesus would have walked through or by here many times as He traveled to Jerusalem for the various religious festivals (and on His way to the cross). 

I’ve read that every Jewish male was required by the law to go to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals of Passover (March – April), Pentecost (May – June), and Tabernacles (September – October).  That being the case, Jesus would have walked 70-90 miles one way for each of them … a total of 520 to 640 miles each year … just for these religious feasts. 

Today we began our final three days here in Jerusalem.  Each day will be packed with activity and learning experiences; so today for brevity sake I’m only covering three:

First – The Pater Noster Church.  This is the traditional site for the Lord’s Prayer – Luke 11:1-13.

In the courtyard of this compound stands a half-reconstructed Byzantine church on the Mount of Olives.  King Constantine’s architects first excavated at the Church of the Holy sepulcher.  Then they turned their attention to Bethlehem and then this site.  In the thinking of Archbishop Eusebius, each of these three sites was associated with a cave and also a key part of the Creed (Jesus’s birth, death/resurrection, and ascension). 

Here you will notice the Lord’s Prayer in over 200 languages.  The identification of this site as the place where Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer came later, sometime before the arrival of the Crusader’s, but it is a dominant tradition ever since.

Second – Dominus Flevit Church.   This is a small Franciscan church located on the upper western slope of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Bible trivia buffs know that the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, when "Jesus wept" over the death of Lazarus. But Dominus Flevit, which means "the cry of the Lord," commemorates a different occasion on which Jesus was moved to tears.

According to Luke 19:41, "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it" because "the days will come upon you when your enemies will... dash you to the ground." (Christians believe this was fulfilled in 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.) Dominus Flevit Church is believed to mark the place where Jesus' mourning over Jerusalem occurred.

The current Dominus Flevit Church was commissioned by the Franciscans, who still run the site, and designed by Italian architect Anton Barluzzin. Constructed in 1954, the church is in the shape of a tear drop to symbolize the Lord's tears.

The current church stands on the ruins of a 7th-century church, some mosaics of which still remain. The western window in Dominus Flevit provides a beautiful view of the Temple Mount.

Third – Yad Vashem – Holocaust Museum.

Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

Yad Vashem is located on the western slope of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, 804 meters (2,638 ft) above sea level and adjacent to the Jerusalem Forest. 

The Yad Vashem complex contains the Holocaust History Museum, memorial sites such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance, The Museum of Holocaust Art, sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, archives, a research institute, library, publishing house and an educational center, and The International School for Holocaust Studies.

Yad Vashem also honors non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, as the Righteous Among the Nations.

Yad Vashem is the second most-visited tourist site in Israel, after the Western Wall. It receives some one million visitors annually.

Our group had a sobering trip here as we learned about the annihilation of 6 million Jews during World War II but even more sobering was the reality that Jews have been persecuted for literally thousands of years … even by those who call themselves “The Church.”

The Hall of Names containing Pages of Testimony commemorating the millions of Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

A great website to view key aspects of this museum is: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/index.asp

Israel 2014 #9

#9 … Monday – May 5^th  [Down the Jordan to Jericho]

Today we work our way back toward Jerusalem, traveling down the Jordan River Valley.  Several sights will really capture out attention along the way:

First – Beth Shean – Scythopolis.  Beth Shean was located at the key intersection of the Jordan Valley and the Harod Valley, which is an extension of the Jezreel Valley (Valley of Armageddon).  Some great pictures of this valley can be seen at this website: 

• ·       http://www.bibleplaces.com/jezreelvalley.htm

The very large Tel or ruin is the Old Testament city, the top of which has a commanding view of the two valleys.  As you look around the site, you will understand its importance.  In addition to its strategic location, Beth Shean is amply watered by springs at the base of the Tel and is surrounded by fertile fields.  After King Saul and his three sons were killed by the Philistines on nearby Mount Gilboa, we read in 1 Kings 31:9-10 “So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.  … and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-Shean.”

The New Testament city that grew up around the Tel was called Scythopolis and was culturally aligned with the Hellenized Deacoplis (the other nine cities were on the Eastern side of the Jordan River).

Beth Shean consists of two parts, an upper city on the Tel which is 260 feet high, and a lower city to the south and west of the Tel.  The site has been excavated intermittently since 1921, revealing the remains of over 20 layers of occupation. 

Among the most interesting remains   on the Tel are a series of temples, built on top of the other over a period of 500 years.

To give you an idea of how big these pillars are, I’ve attached a couple of pictures of when Mike Reid and I visited here a couple of years ago. 

Check it out:

By far the most spectacular visible remains are in the lower city and include mostly Roman public buildings and streets.  The Roman Theater facing the Tel, the best preserved in Israel, once held over 9,000 people watching Greek and Roman plays.  By comparison the capacity of Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo is 3,497; Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids seats 10,834, and the Breslin Center in East Lansing is 15,000.

  

Second – Perea and New Testament Jericho. 

Perea was the term used by historian Flavius Josephus, and others, for a section of the territory east of The Jordan River, opposite the province of Judea and Samaria.  Although the word Perea is not found in Scriptures, the area was mentioned frequently in the Gospels as “the land beyond the Jordan.”  John the Baptist baptized in Perea, and was also martyred there at Herod’s fortress of Machaerus.  Jesus often visited Perea during His ministry, and had many followers from there, which at the time had a large Jewish population.

Jesus spent most of His final months before Passion Week traveling around Perea, teaching in its towns and villages.  Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22-39), and the Jews tried to stone Him again.  He escaped their grasp and went back across the Jordan into Perea for the final months before His crucifixion.  During these months he taught His disciples about the cost of following Him and He tried to prepare them for His coming death.   (Luke 13-19)

Today, most of Perea is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

By the time Jesus and His disciples strolled into New Testament Jericho, the city sat at a distance from the Jericho of the Old Testament. 

And between these two cities sat some blind beggars who pan-handled the pilgrims bound for Jerusalem.  (The two cities, sitting side-by-side with the same name, explain why different Gospel accounts refer to Jesus meeting the blind man as he left Jericho and others expressed the event occurring as He entered Jericho)

After healing blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), Jesus dined and spent the evening with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).  Leaving Jericho, Jesus began His ascent into the hill country of Judea by starting to walk up the Wadi Qelt (remember from my previous writing?).  This gorge drains the hills around Jerusalem eastward into the Jordan Valley. 

Here Jesus would have passed between Herod the Great’s palace buildings, which the late monarch built for himself in Jericho so that he had a place to escape Jerusalem’s winters.  The huge complex boasted large bath houses, a vast reception hall, beautiful mosaics, frescoes, and gold and marble columns.  The opulent palace straddled the ancient road Jesus traveled and connected to itself across a bridge that spanned the Wadi Qelt. 

Then Jesus passed beneath the bridge between the buildings of Herod the Great on His way to die on the cross, I wonder what His thoughts were.  Herod had sent troops to Bethlehem to kill Jesus when he had learned of His birth, and later the evil king died here in his complex at Jericho and was carried to be buried just outside of Bethlehem.  Jesus was walking the same path that the body of Herod, his persecutor, had journeyed several decades prior. 

Jericho is also associated with the Temptation of Jesus by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11).