Saturday, October 17, 2009

Hi All!

Today, we left Tiberias and headed towards Jerusalem. Our first stop was on the Jordan River just south of the Sea of Galilee. Called "Yardeni", it tries to bill itself as the traditional site of Jesus baptism, although it's not. The traditional site of Jesus baptism is down river towards Jersualem, but Yardeni is pretty much the only spot on the Jordan River where both sides of the river are inside Israel (elsewhere, the Jordan is usually the border between Israel and Jordan). But, it is the Jordan River, so we stopped and I got some Jordan River water!

Then, we headed to Bet She'an. Bet She'an is an ancient city which has levels of occupation going back to 3000 - 5000 BC. In Old Testament history, it's mentioned in 1 Samuel 31:1-10 as the city where King Saul and his son Joanathan were nailed to the wall after being killed. In New Testament times, it was one of the cities of the Decapolis, which were 10 Roman cities mostly east of the Jordan River (except for Bet She'an which was on the west side). There are Roman ruins there, as well as ancient Caananite, Egyptian and Israelite ruins. Also, there's a prominent dead tree on the top of a the OT Tel (the old hill which has the ancient levels of civilization). That tree was the prop from which Judas was portrayed as hanging in the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar.

From Bet She'an we moved on to Jericho. Actually there are two cities of Jericho mentioned in the Bible, both next to each other. Ancient Jericho (see Joshua 6:1-20) is mentioned as one of the first places Israel conquered when it entered the land. That city was never rebuilt. However, next to it another city, also named Jericho, was built. In the OT, that Jericho is mentioned as the place where the prophet Elisha cleansed the waters (2 Kings 2:19-22). In the NT Jericho is mentioned in Jesus' parables (see Luke 10:30-37) and also as the place where Jesus met Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).

On the way to Jerusalem, we passed through the wilderness of Judea and saw the ancient road that went from Jerusalem to Jericho. One of the things you get an appreciation of is why the Bible always speaks of going "up" to Jerusalem and "down" from Jerusalem. I always thought this was simply because you went up and down from the temple mount, and that's partly true. However, you really do go "down" to Jericho, because Jerusalem is 3000 feet above sea level and Jericho is about 1000 feet below sea level. While we stopped to see the wilderness, we met Beduin people and rode camels!

Finally, we arrived in Jerusalem just before sunset. We'll be based here in Jerusalem until we leave for Egypt. Tomorrow, we'll be touring around in Jerusalem, and soon we'll be making day trips to the Dead Sea, Qumran (the site of the Dead Sea scrolls) and Bethlehem. Because I'm taking a lot of pictures, and we have wireless in the hotel room, I'll try to post pictures every evening, even if I don't get a chance to post a description, so check the photos each day!

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