Jarom in Jerusalem: 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!