Galilee Day 11 and after!

Hey if you’re reading my blog posts for Galilee you’ll want to start on the first day which is several days down.

Last Day, Day 11-  On the last day we first went to Mount Carmel where Elijah had his contest with the Priests of Baal. (1 Kings 18:17-40). We then went to Haifa to a scenic view over some Bahia Gardens. Then we went down to a graveyard where two members and two missionaries were buried for the 19^th century. The missionaries’ stories were very touching, one leaving his family to go on a mission, the other leaving an education, both passing away on the soil here when the place was called Palestine. The two members were German immigrants waiting for the second coming. When the church was trying to get permission to build in the Holy Land they had some issues since the Israeli government is very wary of new religions. Since the graves were there it showed the church had been there as well. Sometimes this story gets told wrong, so members need to know as my teacher said, it was “absolutely necessary that those graves were there but not the only thing that influenced the decision (to allow the church) by far.” Then we went to Caesarea Maritime, or just known as Caesarea in the New Testament. We watched a movie, went to a theatre with modern seats, went to what was a governor’s palace where Paul would have been tried (Acts 25:11-12 also Acts 25:23 it was cool to know I was standing in the place where it happened!), a hippodrome where Bar Kokba was executed, also where Jewish leaders were nearly killed by Herod before Christ’s time. They had refused to allow the Roman Eagle in the temple so Herod put them in the hippodrome and ordered to have them killed. They bore their necks as a sign they were willing to die. Herod was impressed so didn’t kill them, but still would be reprimanded by Rome for not finding a more diplomatic solution. It’s part of the background for Christ’s day. What did it smell like when those people were being tried? Like salt and the sea because the palace and hippodrome were right by the sea! The palace, in fact, jutted out into the sea. North of the hippodrome was where the soldiers lived and where the Centurion who “feared God” (meaning he believed in Jehovah but was not a Jew) was the first gentile covert (Acts 10). There was also a place where a Roman temple had been, later a Byzantine church, then a mosque, and finally a Crusader church. There were also arches that would have been where boats docked and unloaded. Cool place! Finally, we went to the beach where there were Roman aqueducts and neat places to take pictures! Finally, exhausted, we went back to the Jerusalem Center. I was super tired and could not have done another day of field tripping.

Just to finish up the week, on Friday we had a midterm at 1 PM, so I spent the whole morning studying. Then in the afternoon some of us went to get ice cream at “crash corner” near the Jerusalem Center, then walked to some of the overlooks of Jerusalem, and checked out some old burial caves. Today, Saturday, I went to Choir, Church, and have been doing this most of today! Also I had an interview with the District President of Israel (he talked about the need to separate Political Israeli Zionism and Spiritual Zionism), and went to a little “Sabbath poetry club” that a student came up with. We read poems we made up. Everyone had to read one. I made one up while there. It went “Free-verse…  reverse… fast forward, rewind, pause, stop… puts scratches on the VHS of my life.” Don’t think about that one too hard. Oh well ADIOS!!!!!

Mt. Carmel

Mt. Carmel

Bahai five with Dr. Muhlstein.

Recreation of a stone where Pilot's name was found.

Used to dock boats under that arch.

Pit at Palace in Caesarea. Maybe where Paul was kept?

Hippodrome.

Hippodrome where whoever was in charge sat.

Aqueducts

Yeah!

Back in Jerusalem.

At some graves.

Mormon University

Galilee- Day 10

                                                           

Geez, I didn’t realize how long it would take to write this Blog. This is huge! Oh well. I’m doing this partly for myself, but also for all those who won’t get a chance to do all these neat things as well, including my parents and family! So ya’all better appreciate!

Day 10- Went to Corazim/ Corazin. This city was built up a ton when in AD 135 Hadrian told all the Jews they had to leave Judea after the Bar Kokba revolt, so the ruins there were from after Christ. Earlier, this, along with Bethsaida and Capernaum make the evangelical triangle where Christ did a lot of his miracles and preaching. Christ mentions these cities and says if the works done in them had been done in other gentile cities, those cities would have repented-> but Corazim and others did not. They found there in the synagogue “Moses’ seat” which before was though figurative but turns out was a literal seat also (see Matt 23:2).

After that we went to Sephoris, a city very close to Nazareth that was built up in Christ’s time and so Christ, as a builder, probably worked there with his dad. There we visited lots of old mosaics, as well as visited a museum. It was a pretty big and impressive city with a large Cardo (Roman street).

We visited a big old water system, then stopped by Acco or Acre where there are tons of stuff to do but we just visited Ruins of Crusader building and fortresses that had been filled in by Muslims and so were very preserved.

That night we had a campfire and a few of us did some skits, it was fun and our last night in the Galilee!

"Beam" in my own eye.  From Christs' teaching to not point out a mote in your brother's eye when you have a beam in your own. Not a lot of wood so would have been made of stone. A mote is like a sliver size.

On a recreation of Moses' seat.

With friends at Sephorris.

Stone manger from the time of Jesus. This one has straw in it... 

Crusader place at Acco/Acre.

Crusader toilets.

Underground sewers of crusader city of Acre.

In the Med Sea. 

Med Sea at Acre.

Galilee- Day 9

Day 9- The next day was also very exciting. We went to Hazor, which was a place where Joshua conquered (Joshua 11) and was commanded to burn. As evidence they have found over one meter of ash at parts of the tell. From the ashes they can tell it burnt at 2300 degrees Fahrenheit at parts. Hot! From the Canaanite period there were some stone deities, one of which had been knocked over by a large blunt object. Assuming that happened when Joshua took the city, perhaps some guy knocked over the idol with something blunt before the army burnt the city down. Hazor was one of the first places to fall to the Assyrians in their invasion of the north (2 Kings 15:27-29). Many many civilizations have lived and ruler there, included Israel, Canaanites, Egyptians, among others. We went to a large throne room there, also we saw some false God’s or erect stone (Matzevot) that Israel had been worshiping (that’s why they were destroyed). We visited a watch tower that had been built just to prevent the Assyrian invasion. There we talked about how punishment from God is always designed to bring the people or individual back to God, as with the people of Israel. Hazor is also one of three cities mentioned in the Bible that had renovations done to it by Solomon. At these three cities there are 6 chambered gates and similar water systems-> evidence that the bible really is accurate in telling us those were fortified under the same king; Solomon.

After that we went to Tel Dan. Now this place was neat. First off the head waters of the Jordan start here. We sat at the largest karst in the Middle East a karst is a spring that comes out of cracks in the mountain) and talked about water for a while. There were two ways to get water in the old days-> you could store it in a cistern or drink from a river. The best type of river was a spring with fresh water. In Jeremiah 2 the people forsake Jehovah the “fountain of living water.” They instead drink from cracked cisterns in the ground. (That can hold no water.) Of course, to drink from a spring is way better than from water that’s been sitting in the ground for months. Christ also drew on this imagery and referred to himself as living water (John 4:10) and promised those who followed him that they would have a rivers of living water coming from them (John 7:38). It was neat to think and ponder about next to a gigantic spring.

Then after that we went to “the high place at Dan” where Jeroboam, after taking the Northern Kingdom from Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, erected a Golden Calf who represented Jehovah. He did this so people would stop going to Jerusalem, which was outside his kingdom. From that point on in the narrative of Kings the writer judges Israel’s kings by their temple worship-> if they continued in the sins of Jeroboam (by allowing the Golden Calf to stay), if they did worse by erecting idols to other Gods, or if they chose good and tore down high places like King Josiah. It was really neat to be there and realize that in this spot started an apostasy which would lead to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. They have excavated where the alter was (and built a metal outline how big they think it was) and have the high place after it there where the golden calf would have been. It was super neat to be there because all the time when we were studying First and Second Kings they kept referring to this place and the things that happened there. There are steps that lead up to the place where the calf was. Our teacher encouraged us never to climb those steps figuratively in our lives and mix our worship of God with the philosophies or worship of men, as ancient Israel did.

Basically Tel Dan is also the border of Israel with Lebanon. About 10 Meters away from the site there were trenches dug from conflicts with Lebanon. We were able to stand at the border and look out at buildings and cities in Lebanon. Apparently there is a town right on the border the U.N. wants to divide in two (bad idea) and there is a sect of Muslims there who believe both in Muhammad as a prophet and Jesus as a son of God and Savior. Interesting.

Also, Lot, Abraham’s cousin, was taken to ancient Tel Dan. In Genesis 14:8-16; see vs. 14 for Dan. While it wasn’t called Dan back then, later editors may have replaced the name with Dan. But guess what they’ve found? They found a Middle Bronze age city gate which Abraham may have entered through to enter the city. I thought that was super cool. We also visited some 4 chambered gates, and a platform outside the gate where kings would have sat and judged people or like in Ruth 4:1-2.

After that we went to what was Caesarea Philippi. It was on the outskirts of this city where Peter answered Christ’s question about who he was with “Thou art the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Living God.” Christ’s reply to that about Peter being a rock (Petros) and how he would build his church on a rock (Petra) may draw from the imagery of the cliffs which surrounded the city. We believe that that rock (Petra) the church is built upon is apostolic testimony of Christ through revelation. Basically revelation from God.

We then went to a waterfall on the outskirts of that city, took some cool pics, then we went and invaded an old crusader castle given the name Nimrod after the hunter in Genesis. Crusader castles are built to last and it’s cool to walk into buildings that are 800-900 years old. It was super big and we stormed the whole thing. There were bats down in one corridor. At one point we went down a staircase that was completely dark. Finally, to end the day we went to an outlook that looked over Syria almost to Damascus. The area through the valley in front was an ancient trade route and the road to Damascus where Paul was apprehended by Christ and thus changed Paul’s attitude. I believe it was this day where we got home in time to do a little swimming in Galilee, although that might have been the next. Before I left the sea I thought about how the Savior also probably wadded at least knee deep in the water when pushing off boats, but at another time walked on the water. In the story of evil spirits being cast into swine it mentions they ran “into the deep.” This has a double meaning of water and of hell. I think it was symbolic that Christ was able to walk on the water, or the deep, maybe representing his future power over death and Hell.

Jarom-boam erecting a golden calf at Dan.

High place at Dan!!! Calf would be at platform upper right, and a metal  outline of the alter is in the middle.

View into Lebanon.

Middle Bronze age gate at Dan!

Place where King sat outside gates!

With friends at Tel Dan.

Caesarea Philipi. Behind us was a Greek Temple to Pan.

With Dr. Judd at the waterfall.

With Brother Brother and Sister Muhlstein and son at the waterfall.

With friends at a crusader castle.

At Syrian overlook.

Our beach resort.

View into Syria. Road to Demascus through here.

Galilee- Day 8

Day 8- Field trip! First we went to Mt. Tabor, a traditional and likely site for the Mount of Transfiguration. (A mount “high apart.” See Matt 17, also Luke 9:28.) There Christ was transfigured before his apostles and met with Moses and Elijah. LDS theology says Moses and Elijah were translated or taken up into heaven before they died, so they had physical bodies and were able to give keys of the priesthood to Peter, James, and John upon this mountain. Christians see this as a place where Christ’s majesty was revealed to his chief three apostles. They use a peacock motif in the windows of the church; just as Christ’s glory was able to be revealed so is a peacock can when it spreads its wings. There are three chapels in the church up there to represent Christ, Moses, and Elijah as well as Peter’s desire to make 3 tabernacles on the mountain. 2 Peter 1:16-19 also likely talks about this moment. Also, from this mount Deborah and Barak fought and chased people into the valley below (Jezreel Valley Judges 4 see versus 12 for reference to Tabor), and in the valley in front of it the Ptolemys fought the Seleucids as well. Fun fact; the Greeks used pigs in their army to scare the opposing army’s elephants and cause havoc. Elephants are really scared of pigs apparently.

We also got to visit this chapel that may or may not be built in the original village of Nain. The other class did not get to go into this church because it’s not visited much and the Israeli’s destroyed a house next door and damaged the chapel. But, through some detective work the day before(and talking to a string of 4 or 5 people) one of our leaders was able to find the person who had the key and we were able to go in. It was a nice chapel to commemorate the raising of the widow’s son from Nain. In that story the people call Christ a “great” prophet. (Luke 7:11-17). If this Nain they may have been comparing Christ to Elisha who did a miracle on the other side of the hill at Shunem (2 Kings 4:8). It was the “Nain” event of the day.

After that we went to Megiddo! Tutmoses III of Egypt, who conquered this city by disassembling chariots and taking them through a narrow pass behind the Canaanite armies, wrote “The conquering of Megiddo is as the conquering of a thousand cities!” Well, it was a pretty big tell (a dig on a hill) and was neat to visit. There was a 6 chambered gate build during Solomon’s time, a gigantic Canaanite alter that was like 5,000 years old, and old structures. There was a great view from there of many Old Testament sites.

We also visited a really old synagogue from the 3^rd and 4^th century. It was interesting because they incorporated Greek themes and a Zodiac into a mosiac. It was interesting because there are three spaces on the mural, one with Abraham and Isaac sacrifice, one with a Zodiac representing the cosmos, and a third representing the temple or heaven. After that we went to a spring which is in the same spring system as Gideon used to select men who would go to battle with him. (He had them drink from a spring and see who drank like a dog with his face in the water and who looked around, looking for enemies.) Anyway we went swimming in a river/ spring from the same system. It was made into kind of a little water park. (Gan Ha-Shelosha is the name.)

At night for “home evening” we drove over to Tiberius, walked the boardwalk, bought some ice cream, and watched a light show. There were a couple ruins there as well we checked out in small groups. Fun!

View from Megiddo of the Jezreel Valley.

5,000 year old Canaanite alter.

Thutmose the III and his loyal companion.

4th century synagogue mosaic floor. (The photo spliced wrong but still a good example of how it looks.)

Tiberius models pose.

At a 6 chambered gate in Megiddo.

6 chambered gate and our professor Dr. Muhlestein.

At the chapel at Nain.

View from Mt. Tabor into the Jezreel Valley. Where Deborah and Barak  chased people they defeated (see blog).

Mt. Tabor out the buss window. Possible site for Mt. of Transfiguration.

Church on Mt. Tabor.

Peacock Motif at the church.

Galilee- Days 6 and 7

Day 6- Sabbath. Our classes divided up, one going to church in the morning and the other in the afternoon. There is a small LDS chapel in Tiberius, and we went there. It had a beautiful view. We had a testimony meeting there which was a really neat experience. Because our class went in the afternoon, I had a whole morning of reading the scriptures. It was neat to reflect and have a day without work, and to share testimonies together about the place and experiences we’ve had there. After, on the way home, we stopped by this famous baptismal site where people come to the Jordan River to get baptized. There is evidence Christ may have been baptized just south of the Sea of Galilee, rather than further south close to the Dead Sea. There is actually politics involved since Israel owns one part exclusively and the Kingdom of Jordan owns another baptismal site.

Day 7-The next day was another day where one class went on a field trip while we stayed home. (The next day they would stay home and we’d go out.) So, lots of beach time. This day I got a little burnt even though I put on sunscreen several times, but I think I’ve done pretty well since this is the only time I’ve really gotten burnt on this trip. I’d done my homework so there was only fun on the beach that day. Anyway, I was kind of bored by the end but hey, what else are you going to do on your last day at the beach in Galilee! (Actually we’d have other days we could spend some time in the water but since the beach closes at 6 and we usually didn’t get back till then we thought it’d be our last day. We’d also have our Ancient Near Eastern Studies class at night.)

I suppose Galilee isn't all that bad. :)

Panoramic view from the front of the Tiberius Chapel.

Galilee roommate picture.

Roommate fun.

At the Northern baptismal site of the Jordan river.