Off to Jerusalem

 3/23 Day +3 on our way to Jerusalem we stop first at Beth Shean a 7,000 year old site.  It is an excellent example of Roman architecture.  The University of Pennsylvania has been digging here for years and have uncovered 10% of the site.  It is suggested that if the Garden of Eden was in Israel it would have been at this place because as we move south we go into the Judean dessert. (Named after the tribe of Judah)

Jericho, 10,000 years old.  It is a Palestinian city. It is an Oasis in the middle of the Judean dessert. There is a natural spring here.  They have never found the walls of Jericho so really unsure if this is really Jericho.  Only thing that really matters is that it did exist.  That is the same with everyother site.  We take a cable car up to the Mount of Temptation and the Quarantal Monastery.

There is a Greek Orthodox monastery at the top of the hill where they think they found the cave where Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

During the fast Jesus was tempted by the devil.  They beleive this is the rock.

We overlook the old city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.  The Jewish people beleive this is where the redemption will be held.  The Christians beleive the Lords Prayer was first said here and that Christ ascended into heaven from Mount Olive. 

This is the Garden of Gethsemane.  This is the only site that is exactly the same as the time of Christ.

The Byzantines built the Church of the Agony.

 

Enjoying some Israeli wines.  Anyone recognize the label?

3/24 Day 4

Off to Masada, the Dead Sea and a Bedouin Camp

Stop at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  This was the home of the Essenes, a monastic order who transcribed the oral gospel onto leather and papyrus and copper.  The Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1946 by a Bedouin and sold to a shoe maker in Israel for $25.  The shoe maker was also an archeology scholar and he recognized the Greek symbols.  They ended up at the Metropolitan museum but were sold again to an Israeli for $250,000 and brought back to Israel.

 The cave where the scrolls were found.

Some of my travel buddies.

Masada was the winter home of King Herod in 42 BC.  It was also the home of Elazar Ben Yair and where 960 Jews committed mass suicide instead of surrendering to the Romans in 73CE.  You ask why they didn't defend themselves.  The Romans brought with them 15,000 slaves who were Jewish to build a  500 foot ramp to get up to the main gate to seige the fort.  These were their brothers and they could not kill a brother.  This is one of Israel's most important historical sites.

King Herod built 23 storerooms so they could live indefinetly in these mountains.

This is a replica of Herods palace

Baths

So 10 people killed everyone there and then 1 guy killed the other 9 and then he committed suicide.  

The Judean dessert surrounding the palace.

Our group

 We stopped at the Dead Sea for lunch and a float and a little mud bath.

We visit a Beduoin Camp for camel rides and dinner.  

This camp is actually a tourist spot run by Beduoins.  No one lives here but there were a number of tourist who were spending the night.  They had mats laid out for sleeping.  50 people to a tent😝

3/25 Day 5. We stop at the Museum of Israel to see the a model of the city of Jerusalem in 66 CE before it was destroyed by the Romans.  It is estimated that 30,000 people lived in Jerusalem at this time.

From this picture you can see where Christ was sentenced to die (the big building) and the gate he carried his cross to Calvary and a small stone that looks like a skull head represents where he was crucified.

Then we went to see the Shrine of the Book museum to view the Dead Sea scrolls.

 No pictures allowed inside but here is an outside view.  They keep the temperature of the building constant by spraying  the roof with water.

 

Next we go to Yad Vashem,the Holocaust Museum. The reality hits you so strongly.  

Off to visit Bethlehem, a Palestinian city, known as the birthplace of Jesus and the birthplace of King David.  We visit the Church of the Nativity where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus.  This church is managed by the Greek Orthodox.  It is under refurbishing.

His birthplace.  

The 14 pointed star stands for the three-fold "fourteen generations" of Jesus' genealogy given in the Gospel of Matthew.  Look for the song "Matthew's Begats" by Andrew Peterson.  The entire song is composed of this genealogy.

Scholars believe Jesus was born in 5BC in the spring not the winter.  They put his birth at closer to April than December.  The Christians picked 12/25 as his birth because it is the winter equinox and the pagans worshipped the equinox.  Easier to convert them to Christianity.

Location of the manger in a cave.

A little religion info.  Our tour guide is a Palestinian and Musilim.  Musilims believe in the Old Testament, they believe in Jesus, they believe in the Virgin birth, but they do not believe he was crucified.  They, like the Jews are waiting for the Messiah.  

Day 6 3/27

We walk thru Herods Gate into the old city of Jeruselem and Antonio Fortress.    Via Del Rosa is the way of the cross.   We view the 14 Stations of the Cross.  

Chapel of the Flagalation

Chapel of Condemnation

We enter the Church of the Holy Seplechur which all the religions use to worship but on seperate days.  The keys are held by a Muslim family because they have no vested interest in this Church.

There are three more stations in this church.  The tradition is that Jesus was prepared  for bural on this slab.  Ok , not really.  This stone was brought from Russian and given as a gift by the Russian Orthodox Christians around 1850.  Old Jeruselem was destroyed in 52  CE by the Romans and again in 174 by the Persians so there are really no authentic sites just the suggestion of them.  That's all that matters they believe.

 Believed to be the cave where he was buried.

Tradition says this is the room of the Last Supper and it is built over the tomb of King David.

A visit to the wailing wall where men pray on one side and women on the other

We finish the day with a Turkish coffee and baklava while we wait for our companions who are shopping.

 Tomorrow we head back to PG.  Off to the airport at 4am. 

Happy Easter all.  🐇🐇

Israel

Day 1 Walked to old Jaffa Port ( Jaffa means beautiful).  Jaffa is where Jonah disobeyed God and was swallowed by a whale.

Viewed St. Peters Monastery and church where St Peter raised Tabitha from the dead.

Next to Caesarea a town built by King Herod the Great.  The have excavated the Roman Theater (restored) and the Hippodrome.  

 The pool by the sea

They have proof that Pontius Pilate existed from the carving they found

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant operated by the Druze, a sect that broke off from Islam.  Falafel's in pita with salad.

Next to Haifa, a beautiful port town and home of the Baha'i Faith hanging gardens. 

Last stop was the oldest town in the country Acre where we visited a Crusaders fortress and local market.

Staying in Kibbutz Liva (Lion) for two nights.  Kibbutz means grouping.  The members give up private aspirations and work for the community.  This hotel was built by the Kibbutz 20 years ago.  They bought land and developed it.  There are 700 members in this one.  They get free housing, education, medical and food. They get a monthly allowance for other necessities.  It a very clean place.  Dinner was plentiful and delicious.  They even served wine😍

Day 2-3/22

Nazereth where we see the church of the Annunciation and reportedly the cave that Mary lived in.  The Quran says that Jesus was able to talk at the time of his birth and he told Mary to eat the dates which are ripe in September and October.  The Franciscans asked the Pope if they could take care of all the Holy sites which were owned by the Ottoman Empire.  The Sultan and the Pope were friends so the Sultan gave his approval. There is a Franciscan monastery  attached to the church.

The Franciscans destroyed the church they built to do an excavation where they found the old streets of Nazareth and rebuilt the current church.

 

Next stop the Mount of the Beatitudes.

There is a large hotel built near the site built for Italian visitors. It is said the Church of the Beatitudes was built by Mussolini. 

We took a boat across the Sea ofGalilee 

to Capuraum.

Visited Capernaum where Jesus lived after leaving Nazareth. 

This is the remains of the Synagogue from 200BC.  

This is the church of St. Peter.  The remains off the original one is below this new church.

Last stop before lunch is the Church of the Multiplications (loaves and fishes story)

Lunch at Ali's Restaurant on the Sea of Galillee.  St. Peter's fish before and after.