Galilee, Week 1

I would be ungrateful if I didn't start off this post with a heartfelt thanks to someone who has done me an enormous favor. After a camera mishap in Gethsemane a couple of weeks ago, I was left with no real way to take pictures right on the eve of our Galilee expedition. As I was wailing about my predicament in the computer lab, Sara Plater (may she be blessed) approached me and offered to let me use her backup camera for the remainder of the study abroad. She probably doesn't know just how important that gift was to me: as most of you know, I'm pretty passionate about the sites I've been visiting this summer, and the prospect of not being able to document our remaining adventures had me pretty depressed for a couple of days. So a large thank you to Sara! If any of you know her, give her a hug or buy her ice cream or something. (Also, a big thank you to several of the equally generous people who also offered their cameras, like Sean, Dana, and Ashley.) 

And with that done, let me show you what I've been doing with Sara's camera!

Field Trip 1

We left Jerusalem on Monday morning and headed up the Jordan river valley towards the northern region of Galilee. Much as the ancient Jews took pains to avoid crossing through Samaria on their way between Galilee and Judea, modern travelers heading north from Jerusalem circumvent the West Bank area. After a bit of a drive, we stopped in the ancient city of Bet Shean, aka Scythopolis. This strategically-situated site was a center of Egyptian administration in the area in the 13th century BC. It eventually fell into Philistine hands, and when Saul and his sons were killed in the battle at Mount Gilboa, the Philistines hung their corpses on the walls of the city (1 Samuel 31:8-10). The city passed into Israelite hands, then to Ptolemaic hands, and then finally into Roman control. During the time of Jesus it was known as a city of the Decapolis, a league of ten cities that formed a bastion of Greco-Roman culture in the region. It remains the best-preserved Roman city in Israel.

We couldn't resist a shot of our class enjoying the Roman public latrines.

Our next stop as we headed north was Jesus's home town of Nazareth! This was a highly-anticipated site, and it didn't disappoint. While the city has developed many of the tourist trappings we've come to expect at pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land, it still retains a little of the small-town atmosphere it must have had as the Savior was growing up here two millennia ago. The gospels are frustratingly silent about what Jesus's childhood, adolescence, and early manhood would have been like, and for me our visit to Nazareth did more to prompt questions than provide answers, but it was an amazing experience the same.

This "Synagogue Church," which dates to the Crusader period, is built over the ruins of a first-century synagogue, traditionally regarded as the one which Jesus would have attended as a young man and where he dramatically announced his Messianic fulfillment of Isaiah 61 (see Luke 4:16-30). 

A beautifully enormous church sits atop the traditional site of Gabriel's annunciation to Mary (pictured above). I didn't get very many good photos, but the walls are all decorated with creative mosaics from dozens of different countries.  

Behind the three of us are some ruins of first-century Nazareth. I have a shot of just the ruins that I was going to upload, but Natalie and Hannah are even cooler than ruins, so I stuck with this shot. :) We had some discussions at Nazareth about the role of Mary and the importance of righteous, spiritually-minded women in the New Testament. It made me grateful for all of the fantastic young women I've gotten to know over the course of the this study abroad; they all inspire me to a higher standard of discipleship.

As we left Nazareth and headed towards the Sea of Galilee, we stopped by the city of Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle by transforming water to wine at a wedding. This was by far the preferred miracle of many Argentine wine lovers that I encountered on my mission, but the story may have a greater significance than they realized. Brother Huntsman has published a fantastic article on blood and water imagery in the book of John, and he suggests that John consistently uses water as a symbol of immortality and spirit, while blood (or in this case, wine) symbolizes mortality. John's gospel lacks a nativity story, but just as Jesus turns the water here into wine, this miracle might represent Jehovah's transformation from his spiritual, divine state to a physical, mortal body. I can't explain it nearly as well as Brother Huntsman does, so I highly recommend his article: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/studies/?vol=1&id=29 Pictured above is the church built at the site. It was unfortunately closed when we came to visit; sneaking a photo through the bars of the gate was all I could do. 

This is the summit of Mt. Arbel. While it was the site of some crazy Roman Jewish clashes (Roman forces had to lower troops down into rebel-occupied caves via ropes), we climbed it primarily for the amazing view it provides of the Sea of Galilee. 

This is our view of the sunset from the beach of our Galilean lakeside resort. How lucky am I? SO lucky. 

Field Trip 2

To kick off the day, we boarded a ship and crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee!

No storms popped up for us, but we did sing "Master, the Tempest is Raging."

Me and Sara, with the Sea of Galilee and Mt. Arbel in the background. 

Waiting for us at the end of our boat ride was...a boat! This one is slightly cooler though: it's an ancient fishing boat that was removed from the muddy shore of the sea in 1986. After painstakingly excavating it and moving it, it was treated with preservatives for a decade before it was finally put on display. Jesus and his disciples likely would have used a small fishing boat like this one to cross the Sea of Galilee.

Our next stop was the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount. It's a beautiful site for a beautiful text. Brother Harper, our teacher/guide, didn't spend too much time talking to us here: we had a musical number, he shared some brief thoughts with us, and then he let us find secluded spots to sit and read Matthew 5-7. There's nothing quite like reading the Sermon on the Mount...on the mount. 

The octagonal Church of the Beattiudes sits on the mount overlooking the sea; each of its sides commemorates one of the blessings Jesus gave in the beginning of the sermon. We had a fantastic violin/vocal duet perform "Consider the Lilies" right outside the church. A nun, who had been shushing other tourists, started to approach us, and I was afraid she would tell us we were being loud. Instead, she whipped out her cell phone and took a picture, giving us a thumbs-up afterwards. Gotta love Israel. 

This is the Table of Christ, in the Church of St. Peter's Primacy, where Jesus appeared to the apostles after his resurrection and made them breakfast on the lakeside (John 21). Egeria, a fourth century pilgrim to the Holy Land, wrote that chipping off a piece of the rock and taking it with you would bring prosperity. I was tempted, but I thought it might also bring me an Israeli court summons, so I abstained. 

One of my most anticipated sites on the Galilee itinerary was the city of Capernaum. This site became the central location for Jesus's Galilean ministry, and numerous miracles occurred there (particularly the raising of Jarius's daughter, healing the woman with an issue of blood, healing a nobleman's son, and healing a centurion's servant). Jesus quite possibly spent more of his ministry here than in any other single location.  Unfortunately, Jesus's words and works found a largely unreceptive audience: the Savior sharply upbraided the town in Matthew 11:23: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." Today there is nothing left in the city but memorials and ruins.

This is a fifth century synagogue, built over the ruins of what might have been the first century synagogue in which Jesus preached part of his famous Bread of Life discourse. I couldn't help but do a little preaching myself. 

This might not look like much, but it's perhaps one of the most significant early Christian sites. Inside these octagonal walls are the ruins of what is believed to be Peter's (or Peter's mother-in-law's) house, where Jesus stayed and often taught during his time in Capernaum. After Jesus's resurrection, early saints used this location as a house-church (known as domus ecclesia), which was expanded in the fourth century and then replaced by an octagonal Byzantine church in the fifth century (which included the walls pictured above). In this photo you can see a large structure above the ruins; this is a large, spider-like Catholic church that sits suspended above the former churches; it has a glass floor so that worshippers can look down on the site of one of the first Christian meeting places. 

For dinner we went to a fish restaurant. I'm not a seafood guy, but even I couldn't resist something titled "Saint Peter's Fish Fillet."

That's the fish's head...yeah, I was in a strange mood that night. 

Field Trip 3

I've forgotten to mention one of the best parts of the entire Galilee experience thus far. Before we left Jerusalem, Brother Harper pulled me aside and asked if I would be willing to give the historical/archaeological explanations at the sites during this expedition. I'm not exactly sure what induced him to do this--even though he's more of a Restoration historian, he still knows the ancient Near East far better than I do. Maybe he thought I needed a creative outlet for all of my nerdish excitement. Regardless, he has made my wildest dreams come true by letting me tell the class about all of the ancient awesomeness at the sites we've visited, and I owe him a lot for letting me live my dream of being an ANES professor. The real victims of this arrangement are my fellow students, who now have to endure my craziness at every place we visit. And no where has that craziness been more apparent than at Gamla. 

 Me and my Roman troops, preparing the siege engines for an assault on Gamla. 

Gamla deserves its own blog post, but I'll try and do it justice here. It's built on the side of a steep, rocky hill. (It's visible from the Mount of Beatitudes, which means that Jesus may have been referring to Gamla when he told his disciples that "A city which is set on a hill cannot be hid.") The steep dropoffs on three sides of the hill make the eastern side the only point at which it can be attacked. As the Roman legions marched into Israel to crush the Great Revolt, most of the cities in the Galilee region capitulated without a fight, but many of those who wanted to resist the Roman attack gathered at Gamla. The historian Josephus describes in detail the siege of Gamla, where the general and soon-to-be emperor Vespasian brought three legions in to crush the rebels. After breaching the walls with siege engines, the Romans stormed the city but were repelled by the Jewish fighters, and (as told by Josephus) only a Rambo-like performance from Vespasian himself prevented the loss from becoming a total massacre. Later, with reinforcements from his son Titus, Vespasian manages to reenter the city and force the defenders to the highest precipice of the hill. With Romans on one side and the valley on the other, the remaining combatants hurled themselves off the craggy peak. Some of the details of Josephus's account might not hold up under scrutiny, but the ruins themselves and the hundreds of Roman arrowheads and catapult stones bear witness to the heart of the story.  

 One of the most significant features of Gamla is the synagogue, which is possibly the oldest synagogue in Israel. 

 Brave Jewish defenders, standing in the remains of one of the guard towers. 

After reluctantly leaving behind the battlefield of Gamla, we went to Katzrin, a Jewish city from the Talmudic/Byzantine era. It helped us better visualize what day-to-day life would have been like for Jews living in the early centuries AD. Brother Harper pointed out many New Testament parables that make a lot more sense when understood in the context of Jewish life at the time. 

Just grinding my grain to make my pitas.  

 Friendship in the ruins!

Finally, our last stop of the day was at Kursi. This was identified by Byzantines as the place where Jesus cast the legion of devils out of a possessed man and into a herd of swine, who promptly ran into the Sea of Galilee and drown. The Byzantines couldn't pass up the chance to erect a commemorative church, and it remains the largest Byzantine bascilica found in the Galilee. 

 Us, impersonating the herd of demon-possessed swine. As you can see, I don't have to work too hard to impersonate a pig.

Nor do I have to work too hard to impersonate a possessed crazy dude. My classmates say that I make this exact face when teachers tell me it's time to leave a site. 

Checking off stragglers on the Jerusalem Bucket List

At the outset of this adventure, I compiled a list of must-visit sites to see before the end. I've done a pretty thorough job of hunting down the big ones, but a few minor ones have eluded my attention until recently. The last week and a half has been primarily dedicated to tracking some of these things down. 

This little wooden graffiti has more significance than you'd think. It's carved into the door of what once was a hostel for pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. While some might argue that it says "AYDE", Latter-day Saints like to think that it says "HYDE". Orson Hyde came to Jerusalem in 1841 to dedicate the land of Israel for the gathering of the Jews, and it's a definite possibility that he may have stayed in this hostel during his time in the region. A very nice Franciscan monk from Argentina let us back into the residential quarters of the monastery to see it.

This isn't a great shot of the room, but where I'm standing is one of the traditional sites of the 'Upper Room' in which Jesus had the Last Supper with his apostles, where he appeared to them after his resurrection, and where the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost occurred. A very kind nun at the site introduced us to it and even sang a little bit in Aramaic (the language Jesus and his contemporary Jews would have spoken). Here, Brother Harper gave a powerful devotional about the central role the sacrament plays in our covenant to take upon us the name of Christ and always remember him.

These ruins were actually discovered as workers were digging the foundations for a Russian embassy. They decided to move the embassy somewhere else and build a Russian Orthodox church to honor and preserve the ruins, including an arch through which (the pious believe) Jesus walked on his path to crucifixion. Of more interest to me was this side gate: apparently when the main gate here was closed for the night, travelers would use this smaller gate to enter the city. Some regard it as the "Eye of the Needle", calling to mind Jesus's saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

My apologies for the size, but this is just too cool to pass up. This is the dome of the Greek Orthodox Catholicon in the Church of the Holy Sepluchre. The central feature is the depiction of Jesus known in Orthodox iconography as Christ Pantocrator (literally "Christ, Lord of All). In each corner are each of the evangelists, and surrounding Christ in the dome are various saints and angels. The picture that follows is me directly under the center of that dome. I'm touching the omphalos, which was (and by some, is) considered by Orthodox Christians to be the center of the world.

In the heart of the Jewish quarter is a synagogue known as the Hurva, or "Ruins" synagogue. It had been destroyed twice before it was finally reconstructed and dedicated in 2012. Pictured here is the holy ark, where the Torah is stored, and the central stand where the rabbi reads the Torah during services.

Just another shot of the Dome of the Rock. You have no idea how much I want to go inside here, but the security guys just smile and shake their fingers at me every time I attempt it. 

This is the al-Aqsa mosque, which is the other prominent feature on the Haram el-Sharif (aka Temple Mount). It commemorates Abraham's attempted offering of Ishmael. 

This dome marks the site where Solomon gave the dedicatory prayer over the first temple, and where Jesus taught in the temple court. 

The Golden Gate of the Temple Mount. There used to be a bridge here that spanned the Kidron Valley and reached the Mount of Olives. 

And the Jerusalem YMCA tower! This very upscale center is a landmark in West Jerusalem (it was designed by the architect of the Empire State building) and a popular spot for BYU students, because one of our senior service couples, the Squires, play the carillon bells here every week! We went with them this week to serenade the city with our bell-playing skills. 

With my limited piano abilities, I was only able to pull off Hot Cross Buns, or something like that, but it was fun anyways. We each got to play one of the dongs when the clock struck noon. 

...And stay for a Galilee update in the near(ish) future!

Ma Nishma?

Hello, my loyal blog readership! First of all, it's looking like sometime this week, the blog will hit 1,000 views! Originally I didn't think this blog would have an audience beyond my mom, grandma, and girlfriend, so I'm rather astounded that I've got this many hits. Thanks for showing an interest in my historical ramblings and goofy photos. (Of course, there might be a sharp drop in the number of photos pretty soon...but more on that later.) Here's a quick glimpse into the excitement of the last week!

Lately I've been making more of an effort to explore the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. The Old City has a pretty crazy history: it was largely destroyed during Israel's conflict with Jordan, and before it was rebuilt the Israelis did some intensive archaeological surveys. They uncovered and preserved some fantastic remains from ancient Jerusalem. Above is pictured one of the most important discoveries: the 'Broad Wall' of old Jerusalem. This impressive fortification, over five yards thick, would have been built by King Hezekiah in the late eighth century BC. Following the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, Jerusalem experienced and rapid and enormous influx of refugees. These immigrants from the north largely settled to the west of what was the old Jerusalem, the city of David. In order to prepare the city for the incoming invasion of Assyria under Sennacherib, Hezekiah expanded Jerusalem's city walls to include the homes of this expanded population. As significant as this is for the Biblical narrative (just take a look at Isaiah 36-37), this also plays into the Book of Mormon narrative as well. We know that Lehi was from the tribe of Manasseh, and his forefathers may have immigrated to Jerusalem during this period. These city walls would have been the walls of Lehi and Nephi's Jerusalem, the walls behind which the band of brothers hid as they launched forays to obtain the brass plates.

This is me and my crew at the Cardo, which would have been the main thoroughfare through the city of Jerusalem during the Roman/Byzantine periods of the city. As the artistic representation below depicts, the columnaded walkway would have been lined with numerous shops.

Nate couldn't help but hold hands with an ancient babe. 

One of the most interesting stops in the Jewish Quarter is the Temple Institute, run by an organization dedicated to hastening the construction of the third Jewish temple. Check out their website to get a taste of their ideological zeal: http://www.templeinstitute.org/main.htm. As there's very little that they can do in terms of actual temple construction, they've been fulfilling their mandate by preparing all of the vessels for the new temple. Pictured above is the two-ton menorah that they created and placed overlooking the Western Wall plaza. They've completed most of the essential items, and some of their current projects include genetically engineering a 'red heifer' and creating the robes for the Levites. It was cool to see the items they've made as visual aides for imagining what the ancient temple would have looked like. 

Of course, any trip through the Jewish Quarter is incomplete without a trip to the Western Wall. I've already provided a bajillion photos of the plaza, so this time I thought I'd share some new details. The above picture is a close-up of a crevice in the wall. Pretty much every crevice between the ground and ten feet up is filled with small, folded sheets of paper. Jews (and others) visiting the wall often write prayers and then place them in the crevices of the wall. Jewish tradition holds that the Divine Presence, the Shekinah, never departs from the Western Wall, and all prayers offered travel here first (where the Holy of Holies stands) before ascending to heaven, so it's natural that the wall is a place for offering prayers. A few times a year, Jews clean out the prayers and, in keeping with their tradition of honoring any writing that bears the name of God, they bury the prayers in a cemetery.

Not a lot of historical significance here, but a whole lot of patriotic significance. That's me, Stephanie, and Sarah enjoying some legit Fourth of July hamburgers. Our Jordanian chef Akhmed put together an incredible holiday BBQ, which was better than most Fourth of July meals I've had in the States. Brother Huntsman blared a patriotic playlist as we ate, and we had some good carnival-style games afterwards. It was a good taste of home. 

Here's me and Rachel at the Bible Lands Museum! Her and Avery had to put up with me nerding out over vases from Uruk and ziggurat models from Babylon. 

Me in front of ANES Mecca: the Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum. This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are stored. The top is shaped like the top of the pots in which several of the scrolls were discovered. 

The A-Team: Ashley, Andy, and Avery. It's thanks to these two that I haven't turned into Andy the Hutt this summer: they drag me out of bed to jog every morning. This was right before our visit to the Great Synagogue in West Jerusalem. It's one of the largest synagogues in the city, a place were Jews of all levels of orthodoxy come together to worship. They have a synagogue choir which accompanies the service, which made for an awesome experience. 

This photo requires a little bit of of background. David Kramer and I teach the 8/9-year-old Primary class, and they can sometimes be a pretty rowdy bunch. This last Sunday, we had a totally JC student-run Primary: no presidency members or adults from the branch. Our boys were getting a bit out of hand, but chorister Susan Bell was prepared. She whipped out a new singing time activity: the Singing Hat. She explained that whichever class sang most reverently and beautifully would have the honor of placing the Singing Hat on their teacher. Boy, you never saw a set of little kids become so angelic so fast. They sang like altar boys, despite our pleas that they start acting up again. In the end, our class was chosen, and with malicious glee they placed the Singing Hat on Kramer's head. This photo was taken to immortalize his shame.

And, finally, this is a carving at Gethsemane, but its real significance is that it's the last photo my camera will probably ever take. I was trying to switch the flash on for another shot of this when a large tourist group came through, and someone bumped me, causing my camera to tumble to the cobblestones below. I was about to punch the tourist in the face, but then I realized where I was, and I decided it would be more appropriate to slice off his ear instead.

...Ha ha ha, just kidding, just kidding, a little biblical humor there. In short, the lens of my camera won't come out any more, and I'm not sure how or if I'll be able to repair my camera. My traveling buddies have promised to get me copies of the group pictures we take, and I might be able to borrow cameras on occasion, but it's unlikely that I'll be updating this blog as frequently for my remaining month of the trip. Cross your fingers though: if I can find a way to fix/replace my camera, it'll be business as usual. And I hope I can solve this problem, because next week...we're going to Galilee!!!