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.