Too cool for school!

There is a time and place for diligent study and academic achievement. 

There is also a time and place for wanton abandonment of responsibility and rampant exploration.

And the funny thing is, when the place is Jerusalem, it seems like it should always be time to explore. That's what it has felt like for the past three days, at least. We got back from Jordan and attacked the city with a vengeance. 

Saturday

On Saturday, we took a quick expedition over to the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. The church is built over the traditional site of the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest to whom Christ was taken immediately following his arrest. It commemorates Peter's threefold denial of the Lord, which would have occurred there. 

Me and intrepid explorer Chloe, overlooking the church from the hill above. Though you can't see it in this shot, the structure is topped with a rooster, calling to mind the crowing of the cock after Peter's third denial of Jesus.

Me and Ian, in the prison pit where Christ is believed to have been kept during the night preceding his crucifixion. Tradition also asserts that Peter and John were kept here, as recorded in Acts 4.

Above is a statue depicting Peter as he responds to accusations of being a disciple of Christ; the inscription at the base is Latin for "I know him not." If anyone is not familiar with the amazing talk President Kimball gave entitled "Peter, My Brother," I highly recommend listening to it (http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=703). In it, President Kimball comes resoundingly to the defense of the chief apostle and his valiant role as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I was reminded of the talk as I looked at the different paintings in the chapel. The first one on the left depicted Peter denying Christ. The second, in the apse, showed Peter as he "wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62). The last one, on the right, showed Peter and the risen Lord by the sea, where Peter testified three times of his undying love for the Master. Believers will debate forever the story behind Peter's denials on the night of the crucifixion, but one thing is beyond debate: from that dark day forward, Peter stood as a peerless witness of Jesus. For me, he is one of the foremost examples of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 

Sunday

On Sunday, we were able to attend an English Mass at Notre Dame of Jerusalem. Some of my favorite experiences in the Holy Land thus far have been attending the worship services of other faiths, and this was one of my favorites. And just as icing on the cake, after the service Father Eamon Kelly took us downstairs and showed us some of the archaeological items the church keeps, including a stone from a synagogue in Galilee bearing the earliest existing stone depiction of the menorah of the temple. 

After Mass, we worked our way west through the city towards the Supreme Court, but I persuaded my group to take a quick detour and see the Herod family tomb. While Herod himself was buried in the Herodian (to be discussed shortly), he had a tomb prepared for his family members closer to Jerusalem itself. We weren't able to go inside the complex itself, but we managed to snap a photo outside. Note the large rolling stone to my left; it is one of two tombs in Jerusalem that has such a sealing stone. Also note that, to honor the title of my blog, all of my companions took this photo shoeless.

Where East meets West. Funny thing is, Hebrew doesn't have a 'W' sound, so Washington becomes Vashington, or something along those lines. 

We eventually completed our trek across town and made it to the Supreme Court, where we had a fantastic guided tour by a hilarious retired Jewish economist. She pointed out that a lot of the architectural features of the building were biblically inspired. For example, the doors to each of the five main courtrooms are inspired by the traditional Israelite three-chambered gate design. In biblical times, the elders of the city often met in the gates of the city to pass judgement (for an example, see Ruth 4). 

Although this photo isn't broad enough to show it, the courtrooms all follow the Roman basilica design, reflecting the classical tradition of judgement and justice. 

On the return trip from the court, we stopped at the Scottish church dedicated to my patron saint, the good Saint Andrew himself. The church is less than a century old, but it has a castle-like flair that made it worth visiting anyway. 

We felt like going to see Brave after this visit, but it hasn't hit Israel yet!

This story was too good to pass up. In 1329, one of the greatest warrior-kings of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, made a dying request that his heart be buried in Jerusalem. Sir James Douglas, one of Robert's best friends and boldest knights, set out on a journey for Jerusalem with his king's heart in a silver casket around his neck. Sadly, Sir Douglas was killed in battle with the Moors at Granada, and the heart was taken back to Scotland to be interred. When the Scots finally built a church in Jerusalem, they commemorated his noble wish. I feel like this is the next Russell Crowe movie waiting to happen. 

This is super random, but it was such a powerful experience for me that I had to include it here. In the chapel was this basket of stones. As silly as it seemed, I decided to try it. I picked up one of the rocks, turned it over in my hands as I thought about some of the issues I've been wrestling with lately, and then set it back down, imagining that I was laying it at the feet of the Savior. Immediately I felt the Spirit wash over me. I know that we really can take advantage of the Savior's promise in Matthew: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Monday

Monday was the long-awaited field trip to Bethlehem. But before we even got to the City of David, we stopped on the outskirts to visit one of Herod's numerous palace-fortresses: the Herodion.

Looks like an ordinary hill, right? WRONG! It is actually a man-made mound, and the fortress is built inside the top of it! How hardcore is that? It's like something that a comic book villain would do! If I was a psychotic megalomaniac king, I would totally build myself a volcano-like fortress!

A pile of rocks, which Jewish defenders of the Herodian would have rolled down at approaching enemies. 

Herod the Great built many fortresses throughout his kingdom; they were primarily intended as safe refuges for him in the event of a revolt against his rule. The Herodion was actually built on this particular site to commemorate Herod's victory over Jewish rebel forces who opposed his rule in 40 BC. It's a fascinating blend of luxury (bath houses, large dining halls, gigantic swimming pool w/island) and defense. We took some time at the site to compare Herod as a king to Jesus as a king.

Me and Laura on site. Our ANES professor, Brother Ludlow, was home with an injured child during this field trip, and I happened to have my Oxford Archaeological Guide on me, so after Brother Harper finished giving his spiritual insights, I borrowed the transmitter and gave a little bit of background info on the ruins. After I finished, all the rest of the group said that I was destined to teach their kids as a professor here at the Jerusalem Center. I would be totally fine with that excuse to come back here. :) 

Herod eventually died and was buried in the Herodian, but that wasn't the end of the site's occupation. Zealot forces staged a last stand at the Herodian at the end of the Great Revolt, and the site may have been the center of operations for the Bar Kokhba revolt later on. During that conflict, Jewish forces dug tunnels connecting the different cisterns in order to stage surprise attacks against the Roman besiegers. 

After the Herodian, we made our way to the holy city of Bethlehem! The 100ish-degree weather didn't make it feel quite like Christmas, but the spirit of the nativity was certainly in the air as we drove into the city of the Savior's birth. 

The irony of this was just too good to pass up. 

While the main object of our trip to Bethlehem was to reflect on the birth of the Messiah, we had to take a moment to pay homage a lesser (but still significant) moment in Christian history. It was in this cave in Bethlehem that the venerable St. Jerome translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin, creating the Vulgate. This was the Bible that most of Europe used for over a thousand years, and had a profound impact on the development of Christianity and the eventual translation of our King James Version today.

I didn't get a lot of great photos inside the Church of the Nativity, which is a pity, because it an enormously significant site. Constantine's mother, Helena, designated the site as the place of Jesus's birth in the early fourth century. The church that Constantine built on the site was destroyed, but it was rebuilt by Justinian in 565 and has been in constant use ever since, making it one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. Our visit was a timely one: just last Friday, UNESCO designated the Church as a World Heritage Site.

Me and Ryan by the silver star of Bethlehem, which marks the exact traditional spot of Jesus's birth. 

And here's me in the traditional location of the manger!

Us having lunch in the Bethlehem Tent Restaurant! We pretended that the tent was supposed to re-create the Wise Men's royal caravan, because we couldn't think of any other reason why they would create a tent-themed restaurant in Bethlehem. 

Shepherds and shepherdesses, standing in front of the most epic monument to shepherding in existence. 

This cave is the traditional hang-out spot of the Bethlehem shepherds, but this spot just screamed Daniel and the Lion's Den to us, so we took the photo opp. I'd say Avery and Michael are as scary as any lions. 

We finished the day at a honest-to-goodness shepherd's field outside the city, where we had time to reflect and to sing the majority of the Christmas songs in the hymnbook. There's just something magical about talking about Jesus's birth: it's a story that never gets old. I loved the chance to learn more about Christ's miraculous birth, and now I'm anticipating even more the chance to go to Galilee and learn more about his incredible ministry. 

Tuesday

While the main focus of today was olive wood shopping (Mom, you now have a nativity set!), we did manage to sneak away for a minute to visit some good ol' ruins. Underneath the modern Damascus Gate, which is the usual way we enter the Old City, are the ruins of the ancient Roman gate. There wasn't a lot to see, but when have I ever been able to leave ruins unexplored? 

 I'd be a more convincing Roman without the Hawaiian shirt, huh?

There are a couple of places in Jerusalem where the Roman paving stones retain the etched game boards of the games that Roman soldiers would play in their spare time. Chantel and I did a historic reenactment.